Homogeneous cuprous oxide nanoparticles dotted on the surface of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were successfully synthesized with Cu(CH₃COO)₂•H₂O/treated CNTs precursors by polyol method. The samples were determined by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The effects of various experimental conditions on the obtained composites were investigated as well. Finally, possible deposition mechanism of cuprous oxide particles on the surface of CNTs was proposed. The results indicate that there are cuprous oxide nanoparticles with the diameter of 2～5 nm dotted on the surface of CNTs homogeneously by controlling the molar ratio of copper acetate to carbon nanotubes to be 1∶2, the pretreatment time for 6 h and the reaction time for 2 h. The possible mechanism is that through stirring, copper acetate may be adsorbed on the surface of carbon nanotubes by the strong interaction between copper ion and the functionalized group such as carboxyl and hydroxyl. Then, in polyol solvent, copper acetate was hydrolyzed to CuO and copper(II) ion reduced to copper (I) ion by polyol or acetate ion.

Key words: cuprous oxide nanoparticle, carbon nanotube, polyol method, deposition mechanism