In this study, Al2O3/Cu core-shell nanostructure was fabricated by electroless plating of copper on Al2O3 particles. In order to reach to the maximum efficiency of electroless deposition, the influence of main effective parameters such as type of pretreatment process, HCHO/CuSO4 center dot 5H(2)O molar ratio, C4H4O6KNa center dot 4H(2)O/CuSO4 center dot 5H(2)O molar ratio, pH, pouring rate, concentration of Al2O3 particles, bath temperature, plating time, stirring speed and Al2O3 particle size were investigated. The morphology, uniformity, and chemical composition of the activated and Cu coated Al2O3 particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that, by optimization on the electroless bath composition and the process parameters, using minimum chemicals usage maximum copper plating rate of 19.51% on the surface of Al2O3 particles is obtained. As result of copper deposition on the surface of Al2O3 nanoparticles, uniform shells with about 10 nm thicknesses was fabricated on the Al2O3 nanoparticles. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.