Solid State Fabrication of Copper Nanoclusters and Supraparticles

In this study, we present solid state processes for the fabrication of copper nanoclusters (NCs) and hierarchical supraparticles (SPs). To achieve this, copper salt and thiols are mixed and are then grinded for 10–15 min, and the nano-products are thereby obtained. Interestingly, it was found in this study that the formation of the NCs or SPs is completely dependent on the grinding methods that are used: with mechanical grinding, the products are several nanometer-sized NCs, whereas manual grinding in an agate mortar can obtain Cu SPs with diameters as low as 10 nm all the way up to 200 nm. The photoluminescence emission wavelength of the nano-products is located at ~680 nm. The Stokes shift of the obtained nanomaterials is more than 300 nm. The emission quantum yields of the Cu NCs and SPs are as high as 47.5% and 63%, respectively. Due to their facile fabrication processes and their favorable optical properties, the two as-prepared types of copper nano-materials exhibit great potential for bio-imaging and bio-sensing applications.