Sonochemical synthesis and characterization of nanostructured copper(I) supramolecular compound as a precursor for the fabrication of pure-phase copper oxide nanoparticles

In this investigation, nanoparticles and single crystals of a Cu(I) supramolecular compound, [Cu(dmph)-µ-I]2 (1), [dmph = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (neocuproine)], have been synthesized by the reaction of copper(II) acetate, KI and neocuproine as ligand in methanol using sonochemical and heat-gradient methods, respectively. The nanostructure of 1 was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analyses, and the structure of compound 1 was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structure of compound 1 has been found to be a binuclear coordination compound. The Cu atoms have slightly distorted tetrahedral geometry with two iodine and two nitrogen coordinated atoms which are trans configuration to each other. Pure phase CuO nanoparticles were simply obtained by calcination of nanosized compound 1 at 700 °C under air atmosphere. This study demonstrates that the supramolecular compounds may be suitable precursors for the simple one-pot preparation of nanoscale metal oxide materials with different and interesting morphologies.