Synthesis and hydrogen reduction of nano-sized copper tungstate powders produced by a hydrothermal method

Abstract The pure nano-sized copper tungstate (CuWO4) powders were prepared by hydrothermal method and consequent annealing at 500 °C for 120 min. The thermogravimetric analysis was used to study dehydration processes, and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that CuWO4 particles were mostly spherical in the size range from 60 to 90 nm. Hydrogen reduction at 800 °C for 60 min converted the CuWO4 to W–Cu composite powders. The hydrogen reduction results showed that nano-sized CuWO4 particles calcining at 500 °C for 120 min indicated finer microstructure than the other calcination temperatures of 0 °C, 400 °C, 620 °C, 650 °C and 700 °C. W–Cu particles were observed finest and homogeneous in the size range from 90 to 150 nm by SEM images. Homogeneous distribution of W and Cu particles was clearly demonstrated by elemental mapping. Encapsulation of Cu phase by the W phase was observed by EDS and TEM. From FFT and HRTEM images, the orientation relationship of (01-1)Cu ∥(01-1)W and a semicoherent interface between W and Cu phases could be observed. A good correlation between the HRTEM image and the calculated lattice misfit (δ) was obtained.