Investigation of the morphological change of stable copper nanoparticles synthesized in different concentrations of polyvinyl alcohol and its catalytic activities on dye degradation

Abstract

Studies on copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) synthesis and its applications have been published on the basis of using different methods and reactants to minimize difficulties related to the experiments. This work mainly focuses on the synthesis of size- and shape-controlled copper nanoparticles by using nontoxic chemicals, a simple and cost-effective method, and its application. For that purpose, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solutions of different concentrations had been prepared to control the shapes and sizes of synthesized CuNPs produced by the reduction method using L-ascorbic acid at optimized conditions. Unlike others, instead of PVA film or gel, here standard PVA aqueous solutions were used. The different natures of the particles synthesized at different concentrations of PVA were examined successfully. It had been revealed that high concentration of PVA helps to stabilize the CuNPs by forming a stable cage-like structure. Polycrystalline, pentagonal, cylindrical, and spherical CuNPs of average size (11 nm) were synthesized by controlling the concentration of PVA solution. Lone L-ascorbic acid is unable to do that. This is the novelty of this work. The data obtained from UV–vis spectroscopy, DLS, TEM, XRD and fluorescence analysis facilitates establishing the fact. Additionally, it has also been observed that the special sized and shaped CuNPs are very effective in methyl orange (MO) dye degradation catalysis.