COPPER NANOPARTICLES (CuNPs): SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION

Nanotechnology is one of the most important and emerging technology these days which deals with understanding and control of matter at nano-scale.As, in the recent years, metal nanoparticles were highly used in diverse areas like in the fields of biology, chemistry and medicine, due to their unique physical, biological and chemical properties.So, now days a number of metal nanoparticles have been synthesised and characterized.There are several methods to make metal nanoparticles, the major techniques being used were chemical methods like chemical reduction, micro-emulsion, electrochemical and biological synthesis.In this context, the present paper, here, discuss, in detail the synthesis of copper nanoparticles by chemical reduction of copper sulphate with sodium hypophosphite in ethylene glycol, in the presence of a polymer surfactant polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP).PVP was being included to prevent congregation and give dispersion stability to the resulting colloidal nanoparticles.The characterization then has been performed by using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques.