Scalable strategies for the synthesis of well-defined copper metal and oxide nanocrystals.

This tutorial review highlights the most promising methods for the preparation of well-defined copper metal and oxide nanocrystals. These methodologies could be applied to other metals. We present the main synthetic strategies and associated mechanisms to control monodispersity, size, morphology and structure of metal and oxide nanomaterials which can adopt spherical, polyhedral, cubic, rod, wire, plate shapes and possibly hollow structures. We also consider the scale-up of the production of these nanocrystals, which is crucial for a wide range of potential applications such as catalysis, photovoltaics, electronics, optics and electrocatalysis. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012