A solvent-reduction approach to tetrapod-like copper(i) chloride crystallites

Abstract

Tetrapod-like CuCl crystallites with uniform sizes were generated conveniently in a mixed solution of acetylacetone and ethylene glycol at 120 °C under solvothermal conditions. The products were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, UV–Vis and PL techniques. The average length of the legs of T-CuCl is 30 µm. The morphologies of the products were related to the reaction temperature, time and the volume ratio of the solvents. A solvent-mediated morphological transformation mechanism was proposed and it was in good agreement with the observations made with scanning electron microscopy. The role of the two solvents was also explored.