Effects of architectures and H2O2 additions on the photocatalytic performance of hierarchical Cu2O nanostructures

Abstract

Cu2O hierarchical nanostructures with different morphologies were successfully synthesized by a solvothermal method using copper (II) nitrate trihydrate (Cu(NO3)2⋅3H2O) and ethylene glycol (EG) as initial reagents. The obtained nanostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area test, and UV-vis spectroscopy. The synthesis conditions (copper source, temperature, and reaction time) dominated the compositions and the formation of crystals with different morphologies. The visible light photocatalytic properties of as-prepared Cu2O nanostructures were investigated with and without hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and the effect of H2O2 were evaluated by monitoring the degradation of methyl orange (MO) with various amounts of H2O2. It was revealed that the degree of the photodegradation of MO depends on the amount of H2O2 and the morphology of Cu2O.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-014-0726-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Morphology transformation of Cu2O sub-microstructures by Sn doping for enhanced photocatalytic properties

“…The experiment results indicated that the photocatalytic activities could be significantly affected by Sn The photocatalytic mechanism of undoped and Sn-doped Cu 2 O could be reasonably proposed, which were similar to previous reports [41]. Visible light irradiation on the surface of Cu 2 O can generate electron-hole pairs due to the electron exciting from valance band (VB) to conductance band (CB), and thus, a number of reactions could be induced by the photogenerated electrons and holes as previously reported [15,18,41,47] ‫ݑܥ‬ ଶ ܱ + ℎ߭ → ݁ ି ‫ݑܥܤܥ‪ሺ‬‬ ଶ ܱሻ + ℎ ା ‫ݑܥܤܸ‪ሺ‬‬ ଶ ܱሻ (10) The photogenerated holes and electrons can react with H 2 O to generate oxidant species such as·OOH, ·OH, and ·ܱ ଶ ି [15]. Then, the dyes (MO)…”

Fabrication of Hierarchical ZnO@NiO Core–Shell Heterostructures for Improved Photocatalytic Performance

“…To measure the photodegradation activity, a plot of the photodegradation rate constant of RhB versus degradation time was used. The reaction can be described as a pseudo-first-order kinetics model as follows [9]:where C 0 represents the initial concentration of RhB, C refers to the concentration of RhB at different irradiation times t , and k is the reaction rate constant. The linear plots of ln( C / C 0 ) versus time of the photodegradation of RhB over ZnO, NiO, ZN1, ZN2, and ZN3 are shown in Fig.…”

“…Typical semiconductors that have been investigated are TiO 2 [4], ZnO [5–7], Cu 2 O [8, 9], CdS [10, 11], and C 3 N 4 [12]. Among them, ZnO has been the most systemically investigated owing to its high electron mobility, diverse morphologies, ease of preparation, low cost, and non-toxic nature [13, 14].…”

Facile and template-free synthesis of spherical Cu2O as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

“…Cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O), another important transition metal oxide, as a reddish p-type semiconductor with a direct forbidden band gap 2.17 eV, has a various applications in photo-catalysis [5], sensors [6], solar cells [7], CO oxidation, and lithium-ion batteries [8]. As used in lithium-ion batteries, Cu 2 O was regarded as a promising anode material due to some temptation advantages, such as its reversible mechanism with Li ?…”