Investigation of Structural Characteristics of Single-Phase Cuprous Oxide (Cu2o) Powder Prepared By Chemical Method

Ramatu Jummai Umar, Tijjani Hassan Darma, Kazeem Suleiman

Abstract


Energy is essential to sustain human society and continues development of planet Earth but Humans have relied more often than not on fossil fuel for energy since the start of the civilized world. The problem is that the reserves of fossil fuels are limited, and the fossil fuel will be depleted shortly if the usage of this primary energy supply remains at its current level, hence the need for an alternative source of energy such as solar cell which is made from silicon. Therefore, it is paramount to understand the structural characteristics of cuprous oxide. Most of the deposition methods employed in the preparation of copper oxides result in the formation of combined phases of Cu2O and CuO. This study reports a simple and efficient technique used in synthesizing a single-phase Cu2O powder via the chemical method. XRD characterization of the powder sample using Empyrean diffractometer DY 674 (2010) reveals polycrystalline Cu2O phase, no CuO phase was observed. The average grain size evaluated using Scherer’s formula was found to be in the range of 56 – 80nm.


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