The Preparation, structural characterization, optical properties, and antibacterial activity of the CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites prepared by the facile thermal decomposition of a new copper precursor

Objective(s): In this study, a new copper precursor was prepared from the combination of Cu(CH3COO)2∙H2O (1 g in 5 ml of methanol) and benzoic acid (1 g in 5 ml of methanol) at room temperature. Following that, the copper precursor was calcined at the temperature of 500ºC and 600ºC for 1.5 hours to form CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites with the code numbers of CuO-1 and CuO-2, respectively. Materials and Methods: The prepared CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR), UV-Vis, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results: The results of the FT-IR and XRD techniques confirmed the formation of the CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites. In the UV-Vis of CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites, two peaks were observed at approximately 216 and 277 nanometers, which were assigned to the direct transition of electrons and surface plasmon resonance. In addition, the TEM images indicated that the CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites had diverse shapes with high agglomeration. The antibacterial results also showed that the inhibitory effects of the prepared CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites (CuO-1 and CuO-2) were more significant against the two gram negative strains compared to the two gram positive strains.