The transition of copper oxide thin films from CuO to Cu₂O during vacuum annealing has been studied by transmission electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. Dark field images show that isolated and large Cu₂O grains emerge from the small CuO grain matrix. The abrupt change in oxygen concentration across the phase boundary between CuO and Cu₂O in the reaction is different from the continuous change of δ in oxidation and reduction of the superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ oxide. The growth of Cu₂O grains is linear with time and has an activation energy of 1.1 eV. We propose that the discontinuous morphology of grain growth of Cu₂O is due to the migration of the Cu₂O-CuO phase boundary induced by oxygen out-diffusion along the moving phase boundary.
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Li et al. (1989) studied this question.
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