Direct growth and shape control of Cu2O film via one-step chemical bath deposition

Abstract Direct deposition of cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O) film with different particle shapes has been achieved by a simple, one-step and inexpensive chemical bath deposition method with bargain glucose as reductant and trisodium citrate as complexant at low temperature (80 °C). The influences of supersaturation determined by the reaction conditions including glucose, trisodium citrate and copper ion concentration on the number density and particle morphology of the Cu 2 O films have been investigated in detail. The particle morphology of the film was octahedral at low copper ion concentration with excessive glucose; with the increased copper ion concentration at excessive glucose, the spherical particles were obtained. The mechanism of morphology control has been approached on the basic theory of a diffusion-limited progressive growth model under different kinetic conditions as dictated by ion concentration.