Green Chemistry Approach for the Synthesis of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles Using Tragacanth Gel and Their Structural Characterization

Abstract

Cupric oxide (CuO) nanoparticles are synthesized using tragacanth gel as a biotemplate and copper nitrate as the copper source by the sol-gel method at different calcination temperatures. This method has many advantages such as nontoxic, economic viability, ease to scale up, less time consuming and environmental friendly approach for the synthesis of CuO nanoparticles without using any organic chemicals. The synthesized CuO nanoparticles are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The average crystallite size of CuO nanoparticles is calculated using the Scherrer formula. The powder XRD analysis reveals the formation of the monoclinic phase CuO with the average particle size of 18–33 nm.