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Abstract
Cuprous oxide nanoparticles have shown potential capabilities in the field of clean energy, biochemistry, and photocatalysts. The research for the physical and chemical properties of cuprous oxide nanoparticles is vital for understanding the fabrication and growth mechanisms, and surface behaviours control for functional properties and potential applications.
In this thesis, various cuprous oxides have been investigated, including spherical, octahedra and wire-like morphologies. A room-temperature and template-free method was used in the synthesis of cuprous oxides. These cuprous oxides have shown different optical properties due to their nanostructures with different domain crystalline planes. They show different performances in our photocatalytic tests.
To further enhance the functional properties and performance, the nanocomposites composed of the core of cuprous oxide particles and titanium oxide coatings were also investigated in this study. The direct room-temperature solution coating method was studied, which could produce stable nanoparticles for photocatalysts and sensors. In addition, cuprous oxide is easily to dissolve in ammonia solution, so it can be used as a promising material for a sacrificed template. In this thesis an ammonia etching method was used at room temperature to produce cuprous oxide nanocages, which allows further investigation for the applications of the hollow structures.