Green and Traditional Synthesis of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles—Comparative Study

The current study compared the synthesis, characterization and properties of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO) based on green and traditional chemical methods. The synthesized CuO were confirmed by spectroscopic and morphological characterization such as ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, zeta potential, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersed X-ray (EDX). Electrochemical behavior of the modified electrodes was done using cyclic voltammetry (CV) in ferricyanide/ferrocyanide ([Fe(CN)(6)](4−)/[Fe(CN)(6)](3−)) redox probe. As revealed by UV spectrophotometer, the absorption peaks ranged from 290–293 nm for all synthesized nanoparticles. Based on SEM images, CuO were spherical in shape with agglomerated particles. Zeta potential revealed that the green CuO have more negative surface charge than the chemically synthesized CuO. The potential of the green synthesized nanoparticles was higher relative to the chemically synthesized one. Cyclic voltammetry studies indicated that the traditional chemically synthesized CuO and the green CuO have electrocatalytic activity towards the ferricyanide redox probe. This suggests that the green CuO can be modified with other nanomaterials for the preparation of electrochemical sensors towards analytes of interest.