Obtaining of copper nanoparticles in combined RF+DC discharge plasma

Abstract

Copper nanoparticles are gaining more and more attention of researchers due to their properties such as high electrical conductivity, well-defined catalytic and antimicrobial effects, etc. The range of their application is extensive – scientific research, medicine, microelectronics and much more. To date, various methods for the synthesis of copper nanoparticles have been developed and successfully applied, in particular chemical, electrochemical, sonochemical, etc. But a significant drawback of such methods is the unsatisfactory purity of the resulting nanomaterial. In this work, a combined high-frequency discharge with an additional constant voltage (HF/DC) was used to obtain Cu particles. A technique for producing nanometer-sized copper particles was developed and studied, and as further analysis using a scanning electron microscope showed, the particles have a spherical shape with diameters ranging from 60 nm to 300 nm.