Diphenyldiselenide mediated synthesis of copper selenide nanoparticles and their poly(methyl methacrylate) nanofibers

Abstract

Copper based chalcogenide nanoparticles have been synthesized using other methods or techniques. Less is reported on the use of metal complexes as single-source precursors for the synthesis of copper chalcogenide nanoparticles. Diphenyldiselenide is a stable organic source of selenide which is readily cleaved by using sodium borohydride to result in monodentate ligand to the copper metal. The complex is used as precursor to prepare the copper selenide nanoparticles under controlled conditions of hexadecylamine as a solvent and capping medium, time, concentration and temperature. The nanoparticles prepared are of well-defined optical properties and sizes lower than 5 nm which are spherical and highly monodispersed. The polymer fibres were prepared by using poly(methylmethacrylate) loaded with various mass (0.2-1.8 %) copper selenide to make nanofibres with diameters ranging from 1.95-14.65 µm. The thermal analysis reveals the increase in stability of the fibres as the amount of copper selenide nanoparticles is loaded.