One-pot growth of Cu2O concave octahedron microcrystal in alkaline solution

Cu2O concave octahedron microcrystals with edge lengths of 5–10 μm were synthesized by reducing Cu2+ with d-glucose in alkaline solution at 50 °C. The growth process of Cu2O was studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results indicated that Cu2O concave octahedrons were formed by shape evolution of smaller regular octahedron as the edge lengths and concavity increased with time. It is also found that the reaction temperature has significant effect on the formation of Cu2O concave octahedrons. The formation of the concave octahedrons were explained to be due to selectively dissolution of {1 1 1} facets and preferential growth of {1 0 0} facets of the octahedron crystal.