Our latest work by co-authors Alex Bredar and Noah Gibson (undergrad) shows the impact of Ga3+ and other group 13 metal cations have on the synthesis of Cu2O nanocrystals. They have found a new mechanism for oxide nanocrystal growth in which a catalytic metal can perform the required esterification reaction to produce hydroxide ligands and then pass them off to copper cations. Previous literature has suggested that the parent metal (i.e. copper) must be able to drive the esterification to produce Cu2O.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/nr/d1nr02397g#!divAbstract
The Farnum Group 