Electronic Supplementary Material
Determination of thiourea using a carbon paste electrode decorated with copper
oxide nanoparticles
Li Tian※, Ye Gao, Libo Li, Weibin Wu, Ding Sun, Juan Lu, Tianjiao Li
College of Chemistry, Changchun Normal University, Changchun 130032, PR China
Sample preparation
In a typical synthesis, 100 mg Cu(NO3)2·3H2O was dissolved in 50 mL distilled water.
Then 2 mL of N2H4·H2O was added dropwise into the above solution under vigorous
stirring. During this time a blue precipitate is rapidly formed. Subsequently the
suspension was transferred into steel autoclave. The autoclave was sealed, maintained
at 80 °C for 2 hour. After this time the blue precipitate was observed to change color
from blue to black. The precipitate was washed repeatedly with distilled water to
remove the impurities. Finally this suspension was filtered and washed with further
ethanol, the residue was then dried in an oven for 2 h at 50 ◦C. The as-prepared black
powder was collected and labeled as CuO.
XRD characterization
The XRD pattern of the typical synthesized CuO particles is shown in Fig. S1. As
observed, all the peaks corresponding to the reflections in the range 10°< 2 θ < 60°
can be indexed as the monoclinic phased copper oxide (CuO), which are in good
accordance with the values on the standard card (JCPDS 48-1548). The XRD result
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Corresponding author, email:tianli308@yahoo.com.cn, Tel: +86-0431-86168099
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thus confirms the formation of CuO particles with pure phase, which is well
crystallized.
002 111
Intensity (a. u.)
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0
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2 / degree
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Figure S1 XRD pattern of the typical synthesized CuO particles.
Surface characterization
Fig. S2 shows the SEM images for the product obtained. SEM image indicates that
the as-prepared products are composed of nanorods with the length of 2 μm and
one-dimensionally assembled nanoparticles with diameters of less than 100 nm. The
peculiar structure of the nanomaterials can be expected to achieve the merits of high
specific area and structural stability. The assembled crystals can provide a significant
enhancement in effective electrode surface compared with its bulk solid counterpart.
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Figure S2 SEM of CuO nanoparticles.
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