An amorphous copper oxide material with a large BET surface area (191.9 m(2) g(-1)) was prepared via the room temperature conversion of a Cu(OH)(2) intermediate, itself formed via a novel base precipitation technique from an ethylene glycol solvent. The electrochemical discharge rate performance as a primary alkaline cathode material was examined galvanostatically (50 - 2000 mA g(-1)) in 9.0 mol dm(-3) KOH electrolyte, and compared to the incumbent primary alkaline cathode material, electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD). The prepared CuO material performs favourably compared to EMD under high rate discharge conditions (> 600 mA g(-1)), where the material discharges 154 and 135 mA h g(-1) capacity at a discharge rate of 1000 and 2000 mA g(-1), respectively, compared to 132 and 83 mA h g(-1) for EMD under the same conditions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.