Shape-controlled synthesis of copper colloids with a simple chemical route

The new electrical and optical properties of nanomaterials depend sensitively on both size and shape, which are of both fundamental and technological interest. This paper introduces a simple chemical method to produce copper particles, which has the ability to shape the particle without using any capping agent or template. In our synthetic procedure, the reactant concentration and temperature exerted a strong influence on the shape of the copper particles. At low reactant concentrations, the particles were cubic; at high reactant concentrations, obtained particles were spherical. The number of hollow particles greatly increased when the synthesis was performed at low temperature. We also synthesized a copper cubic ring at lower temperature, and it has been rarely reported. The absorption spectrum of hollow particles showed obvious red shifts, which suggests the possible assembly of novel optical materials.