A Green Method for Preparing CuCl Nanocrystal in Deep Eutectic Solvent

Cuprous chloride (CuCl) is extensively used as a catalyst in organic synthesis, and as a desulfurising, decolourising and deodorising agent in the petroleum industry. The traditional synthesis of CuCl nanocrystal powders, which has already caused a big problem in the environment, was via reducing copper(II) by using different additives and a quantity of concentrated acid. In this paper, we report an ecologically and environmental friendly route to prepare nanocrystalline CuCl powders, simply by using the CuCl2 and copper powders in a deep eutectic solvent (DES) at room temperature. The obtained CuCl nanocrystals were characterised by XRD, SEM and XPS techniques, and a possible formation mechanism was also proposed.

Synthesis and Characterization of Copper (I) Chloride (CuCl) Nanocrystals in Conductive Polymer for UV Light Emitters

Intrinsic γ-Copper (I) Chloride is an ionic I-VII compound semiconductor material with relatively low conductivity. To fabricate an efficient electroluminescent device based on CuCl nanocrystals (NC) the conductivity of the CuCl NC film should be relatively high. In order to improve the conductivity of CuCl films, nanocrystals were embedded in a highly conductive polymer (Polyaniline) and deposited on glass substrates via the spin-coating method. The deposited films were heated at 140°C for durations between 1 and 12 hours in vacuo. The room temperature UV-Vis absorption spectra for all CuCl films showed both Z1,2 and Z3 excitonic absorption features and the absorption intensity increased as the anneal time increased. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements of the hybrid films reveal very intense Z3 excitonic emission. Room temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the preferential growth of CuCl nanocrystals whose average size is ≈40 nm in the <111> orientation. Resistivity measurements were carried out using a four-point probe system, which confirmed that the resistivity of the composite film was ≈500 Ω/cm. This is an improvement when compared to the vacuum evaporated CuCl thin films.