Cuprous Oxide: A Comprehensive Overview for the Chemistry Professional

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a new type of semiconductor photocatalyst. Polycrystalline Cu2O has good stability, can be used repeatedly, and will not be reduced to Cu(O) or oxidized to Cu(Ⅱ). Its application in various fields has been gradually studied and developed, and the importance of Cu2O has been gradually confirmed.

Figure 1 Characteristics of Cuprous Oxide

Properties

Deep red or dark brown crystalline powder. It is easily oxidized in humid air, soluble in acid and concentrated ammonia, and insoluble in water. Cuprous oxide is an oxide of monovalent copper, a red or dark red octahedral cubic crystalline powder. Relative density 6.0. Melting point 1235℃. Loss of oxygen at 1800℃.

Uses

Curous oxide has a wide range of important uses in materials, ships, electronics and other industries as well as agricultural production. It is used as a fungicide for ship antifouling bottom paint in the coating industry; it is used as a colorant for red glass and red porcelain glaze in the glass industry; it can also be used as a fungicide, feed additive, etc. in agriculture. As an important industrial catalyst, Cu2O plays a unique role in energy, chemical production, sewage treatment, etc.

Cu2O can also be used in coatings, plastic and glass surface modification materials, photoelectric conversion materials, lithium-ion battery negative electrode materials, etc. Since Cu2O is a P-type semiconductor with semiconductor properties, it can be used as a rectifying material. People have discovered this in the study of using semiconductor materials to directly convert solar energy into electrical energy and chemical energy. The band gap of Cu2O is about 2.0eV, and it is one of the few semiconductor materials that can be excited by visible light. The nano Cu2O film made of this material can significantly improve the utilization rate of solar energy. Therefore, Cu2O materials also have great application potential in the development and utilization of solar energy.

The unique properties of cuprous oxide determine its use value in new materials, environmental protection, electronics industry, chemical production and other fields, and it has great development and application prospects and market potential. Because when preparing Cu2O, controlling conditions or changing the production process can obtain a variety of crystal structures and particles of different sizes, and different crystal forms and diameters have different effects.

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