Abstract

Cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) is selected in this paper to elucidate the shape evolution in the cubic crystal system. A wide range of novel cuprous oxide microcrystals (based on the five branching growth patterns) has been prepared through an EDTA reduction route by employing the EDTA molecule as both chelating reagent and reductant. Hereafter, EDTA is the abbreviation for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid tetrasodium salt dihydrate (C₁₀H₁₂N₂Na₄O₈·2H₂O). The morphology of these microcrystals has a strong dependence on the reaction conditions, which implies vast possibilities of designing new crystal morphologies and may result in the development of powerful and economical design strategies to enable future progress.

Keywords: Crystal morphology; Branching Growth; Cubic crystal system; Cuprous oxide