Preparation and Characteristic of Ultrafine Copper-Based Powders Reduced by a Two-Step Reduction Method

In this study, the ultrafine copper-based powders were fabricated by a facile two-step chemical reduction method. Glucose (C6H12O6) and ascorbic acid (AA) were taken as a pre-reductant and a second reductant, respectively. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was applied as the capping agent. Effects of parameters, such as glucose content, PVP content and PH value on the ultimate reduction products were analyzed. Microstructure and composition of the products were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that when the amount of glucose was increased from half to full and then excessive, the powder gradually changed from flaky to spherical, from pure copper powder to a mixture of copper and cuprous oxide (Cu2O). With the amount of PVP increasing from 0g to 0.64 g, the shape of the pure copper powder changed from cubic to spherical or HYPERLINK "javascript:void (0);" icosahedron. When the PH value changed from 10-14, the powder changed from spherical to regular octahedron and Irregular polyhedron, from pure copper powder to pure cuprous oxide powder. Therefore, copper-based powders with different morphologies and different compositions can be prepared by changing PH value and the amount of reductant.