Hydrothermal synthesis of momordica-like CuO nanostructures using egg white and their characterisation

✍ Scribed by Yun-Ling Zou; Yan Li; Jian-Gang Li; Wan-Jie Xie

• Book ID: 115063858
• Publisher: Versita
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 692 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0366-6352
• DOI: 10.2478/s11696-012-0139-1

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the preparation of momordica-like CuO nanostructures by the hydrothermal method using freshly extracted egg white protein (ovalbumin) in an aqueous medium. These momordica-like CuO nanostructures were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). XRD patterns showed that these nanostructures had a polycrystalline nature with a monoclinic structure. FE-SEM images indicated that the momordica-like CuO nanostructures obtained at 180°C for 15 h were composed of CuO nanorods with a length of less than 100 nm and a width ranging from 30 nm to 50 nm. Finally, a possible growth mechanism for the momordica-like CuO nanostructures is proposed and discussed.