Precipitation and recrystallization of uniform CuCl particles formed by aggregation of nanosize precursors

Uniform, spherical CuCl particles were obtained by mixing aqueous solutions of CuCl2 and ascorbic acid in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as dispersing agent. The size and the uniformity of the resulting particles depended on the volume ratio of the reactant solutions, their concentrations, the distribution of the stabilizers, and the mixing method. The single jet precipitation yielded large spheres of broad size distributions, while the particles obtained by the double jet technique were rather uniform in size. The final colloidal CuCl particles were formed by the aggregation of nanocrystals, initially generated in the system. Depending on the pH of the reaction mixture, these particles slowly change to large CuCl crystals on aging in the mother liquor.