Novel Urchin-like CuO Synthesized by a Facile Reflux Method with Efficient Olefin Epoxidation Catalytic Performance

Abstract

CuO is an important transition metal oxide with a narrow bandgap (E g ) 1.2 eV). CuO has been used as a catalyst, a gas sensor, in anode materials for Li ion batteries. CuO has also been used to prepare high temperature superconductors and magnetoresistance materials. In this paper, CuO with urchin-like morphologies has been synthesized via a simple reflux method. The reflux method has advantages over other solution-based techniques, such as ease of operation, safety, and high yield (95%). XRD results showed pure tenorite CuO was produced. FE-SEM exhibited an urchin-like morphology of CuO, which is composed of aggregates of nanosized strips. HR-TEM showed that the strips were single crystals with the lattice fringe of 2.3 Å, which corresponds to (111). DSC and TGA results suggested that as-synthesized CuO had high thermal stability. Time-dependent experiments were conducted to illustrate the evolution of the urchin-like morphology and crystal phase formation of CuO. The effects of copper sources and precipitators on the phase and morphology of the products were studied. As-synthesized CuO showed much better catalytic performance, increased yield (from 64.3% to 89.5%) for olefin epoxidation than commercial CuO and CuO prepared by thermal decomposition of copper hydroxide.

Synthesising Metal Oxide Materials and Their Composite Nanostructures for Sensing and Optoelectronic Device Applications

“…This material has also high potential in several nanodevices applications that include sensors, high critical temperature supper conductors, lithium ion batteries, field emission emitters and catalysts [46][47][48][49][50]. CuO NSs have shown many attractive properties such as; they can easily be grown on various substrates, prepared as different morphologies, low cost, and they are non-toxic.…”

Study the Influence of the Anodizing Process Parameters on the Anodized Copper Hardness

“…The metal surface after the anodization process converted to a thick and hard oxide layer, which provides some degree of corrosion protection for the underlying metal. Recently Nano copper oxide coating is being developed for various applications as, gas detection sensors, superhydrophobic surfaces, specialized solar cells [1,2,3]. Other researchers study the increasing of the surface hardness and the corrosion resistance of metals by anodization process [4,5].…”

Formation of urchin-like CuO structure through thermal oxidation and its field-emission lighting application

“…Many similar structures, such as hierarchical CuO [41][42][43] and urchin-like CuO [44][45][46], were later fabricated using the hydrothermal synthetic route. In addition, thermal decomposition [47], solid stabilized emulsion [48], and a facile reflux method [49] have been applied in forming urchin-like CuO structures. However, according to our literature review, no study has examined the formation of urchin-like CuO by using thermal oxidation, although an urchin-like Fe 2 O 3 microstructure was reported in our previous study [50,51].…”