Taking A Brief Glimpse Into Copper Nanoparticles
Copper Nanoparticles | Image Resource : acsmaterial.com
Copper nano particles are attractive in nature because of its heat transfer properties like higher thermal conductivity. They have the higher surface area, low production cost, catalytic activity, magnetic as well as optical properties and catalytic properties.
The major difficulty lies in the preparation as well as preservation since they get easily oxidized on exposing it to air. Copper nanoparticles are the copper based particles ranging from 1-100 nm in size. Unlike, any other form of nanoparticles, the copper based nano particles are formed through natural processed else through chemical synthesis. These nanoparticles of copper have its own particular interest because of its applications like coloring agents and also the modern day biomedical ones.
Synthesis of copper nanoparticles
Chemical and physical properties of the copper based nano particles are the common basic techniques which are used in its synthesis. Some of the physical techniques which are used in the process are –pulsed wire discharge, mechanical milling, pulsed laser ablation and vacuum vapor deposition. The chemical techniques used for the synthesis of copper nanoparticles are a chemical reduction, sonochemical reduction, microemulsion techniques, hydrothermal and electrochemical microwave assisted.
Nanoparticles of copper have much higher thermal conductivity, and its production cost is much lower when compared to other noble metals. Production of copper based nano particles by using chemical reduction techniques gives good results, but it avoids toxicity and helps to prepare these nanoparticles in a greener environment. Ascorbic acid is used in the chemical reduction process. It can be used as both protecting agents as well as reducing agent. This makes the process environmental friendly, economical as well as non-toxic. The raw materials, equipment and the synthesis route result in size variation of these nanoparticles.
Copper Nanoparticle | Image Resource : researchgate.net
Understanding the copper nanoparticles characteristics
Nanoparticles of copper have unique characteristics comprising of antibacterial and antifungal activities and catalytic activities which are not found in the commercial copper. The copper nanoparticles characteristics vary to a greater extent as mentioned above. The copper based nano particles have much higher catalytic activity and it can be attributed because of its larger catalytic surface area.
These particles have much higher porosity and are smaller in size, thus these nanoparticles can achieve much higher reaction yield and it can also be used as reagents in organic as well as organometallic synthesis.
Copper nano particles are very minute in size and have high surface area to the volume ratio. On the other hand, it can also serve as antibacterial agents. Since the copper nano particles oxidize very slowly inside the solutions, the copper ions are released and thus create toxic hydroxyl free radicals while the lipid membrane is near to it. Later, free radicals disassemble lipids in the cell membrane via oxidation process to regenerate the membranes. As such, intracellular items move out of the cells through destructed membranes. The cells are not capable of sustaining the fundamental biochemical processes.
While we discuss the copper nanoparticles properties, there is much demand for the copper nano particle suppliers. In fact, the product is widely used in almost all the fields, and thus demand for the products is gradually increasing. Prior buying through online, it’s better advised to take a look at the customer reviews, quality of the materials and finalize the one as per your requirements.