Abdullah Khalil

Synthesis and morphology analysis of electrospun copper nanowires

We report the fabrication of copper nanowires (NWs) using electrospinning technique. This processing technique was used successfully to synthesize copper NWs with various morphologies using a precursor composed of copper acetate salt and poly(vinyl) alcohol. The obtained NWs were characterized through high resolution scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy and it was found that their morphology is sensitive to the applied voltage and solution flow rate. Their diameter decreased with increasing voltage and increasing flow rate. Moreover, at higher flow rate and lower voltage, the roughness of NWs became more pronounced. In addition, further improvement in NW morphology may be obtained with appropriate heat treatment. These copper NWs with varying morphologies and microstructures have potential applications in different engineering domains such as electronics, optoelectronics, and catalysis.

Electrospun metallic nanowires: Synthesis, characterization, and applications

Metals are known to have unique thermal, mechanical, electrical, and catalytic properties. On the other hand, metallic nanowires are promising materials for variety of applications such as transparent conductive film for photovoltaic devices, electrodes for batteries, as well as nano-reinforcement for composite materials. Whereas varieties of methods have been explored to synthesize metal nanowires with different characteristics, electrospinning has also been found to be successful for that purpose. Even though electrospinning of polymeric nanofibers is a well-established field, there are several challenges that need to be overcome to use the electrospinning technique for the fabrication of metallic nanowires. These challenges are mainly related to the multi-steps fabrication process and its relation to the structure evolution of the nanowires. In addition to reviewing the literature, this article identifies promising avenues for further research in this area with particular emphasis on the applications that nonwoven metal wires confined in a nano-scale can open.

Facile synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles via electrospinning

A novel approach for synthesizing copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) through electrospinning is reported. The approach is based on producing rough and discontinuous electrospun nanofibers from a precursor based on copper acetate salt and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. Selectively removing the polymeric phase from the fibers produced highly rough CuO nanofibers, which were composed of NPs that are weakly held together in a one-dimensional (1D) manner. Sonication in a suitable liquid under controlled conditions completely disintegrated the nanofibers into NPs, resulting in the formation of uniform CuO NPs suspension. Aberration corrected high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) showed that the obtained NPs are highly crystalline and nearly sphere-like with a diameter of 30 to 70 nm. Thus, electrospinning, which is a low cost and industrially scalable technique, can also be employed for economic and large scale synthesis of NPs.