Synthesis and characterization of hollow spherical copper phosphide (Cu3P) nanopowders

In this paper, hollow spherical Cu3P nanopowders were synthesized by using copper sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4⋅5H2O) and yellow phosphorus in a mixed solvent of glycol, ethanol and water at 140–180 ∘C for 12 h. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), electron diffraction pattern (ED) and transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) studies show that the as-synthesized nanocrystal is pure hexagonal phase Cu3P with a hollow spherical morphology. Based on the TEM observations, a possible aggregation growth mechanism was proposed for the formation of Cu3P hollow structures. Meanwhile, the effects of some key factors such as solvents, reaction temperature and reaction time on the final formation of the Cu3P hollow structure were also discussed.