Growth of Copper Oxide Nanowires on a Copper Wire via Thermal Oxidation

Abstract

In this study the influences of temperature duration and oxygen concentration on the growth of copper oxide nanowires on the surface of a copper wire through thermal oxidation method were studied Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were taken to reveal the density diameter and length of the nanowires The weight gain during the oxidation process were quantified with thermogravimetric analysis It was found that nanowire growth on the copper wire surface was relatively slow for temperatures below 500 oC and the oxidation rate increased monolithically above this threshold temperature SEM images showed that the CuO nanowires were longer at high temperatures however the density of the nanowires was lower at 600 oC comparing to 400 oC and 500 oC Oxidation duration on the other hand did not significantly affect the length of nanowire but the distribution of the nanowire density There were no significant changes on nanowires geometry using different oxygen concentration Weight gain of Cu wire was obtained from thermogravimetric analysis and obeys parabolic oxidation rate law The Arrhenius plots are able to be roughly classified into three regions: high temperature region (550 oC to 700 oC) intermediate temperature region (400 oC to 550 oC) and low temperature region (325 oC to 400 oC)

Date of Award	2016 Sept 5
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ming-Hsun Wu (Supervisor)