One-pot solution synthesis of shape-controlled copper selenide nanostructures and their potential applications in photocatalysis and photothermal therapy

Abstract

Developing a facile and reliable method for the fabrication of transition metal chalcogenides is a vital and endless pursuit of scientific and technological disciplines. In this work, we develop a one-pot solution approach to obtain copper selenide nanostructures with different morphologies and crystal structures (CuSe nanoparticles, CuSe nanoplates and CuSe nanosheets). In comparison to previously reported methods, our method did not use expensive and very toxic raw materials. After detailed studies of reaction conditions, including temperature, reaction time, and feeding amount of surfactants and precursors, we found that the feeding ratio of precursors played a key role in the crystal structures and morphologies of the final products. Moreover, as a proof-of-concept study, the potential applications of the as-prepared copper selenide nanostructures in the photocatalytic discoloration of aqueous methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation and near-infrared (NIR) light induced photothermal therapy for cancer treatment were investigated. Encouraged by their strong photocatalytic activities and high photothermal conversion efficiencies (calculated to be 51.0%, 49.5% and 48.9% for CuSe nanoparticles, CuSe nanoplates and CuSe nanosheets, respectively), we believe that copper selenide nanostructures fabricated from the one-pot solution approach developed in this work would be promising candidates for a wide variety of emerging applications.

Photon helicity driven surface photocurrent in CuSe films

“…Excitation of spin-polarized photocurrents has recently emerged as a powerful tool to study optical and electronic properties of graphene, 1 2D dichalcogenides, 2 quantum wells, 3,4 topological insulators, [5][6][7] planar nanostructures, 8,9 metal, semiconductors, and composite films. [10][11][12][13][14][15] Since spin-polarized photocurrents originate from the transfer of angular momenta from photons to charge carriers, they are determined by the helicity of the excitation photons, providing unique information on the properties of the electronic ensemble.…”

Photocatalytic Degradation of Congo Red Using PbTiO3 Nanorods Synthesized via a Sonochemical Approach

“…where α‐ optical absorption coefficient, hv‐incident photon energy, k‐energy independent constant, and Eg‐bandgap energy, respectively. Hence, from the Tauc plot, the calculated band gap of as‐synthesized PbTiO 3 nanorods is 2.73 eV ,,…”

Selenide‐chitosan as High‐performance Nanophotocatalyst for Accelerated Degradation of Pollutants

“…(16) was obtained by modelling the experimental results with the nonlinear regression method: Table 2 displays the result for each experimental run and the corresponding predicted response which was obtained by. Statistical analysis of the ARS removal model was done with Fisher's statistical test for analysis of variance (ANOVA) [56] and the results are presented in Table 3. The reduced quadratic regression confirms the adequacy of the model since the F value is 52.77 and p value < 0.…”

“…The time directly affects the photo-degradation, but up to a certain point after which the surface of the TMS-CM is saturated by dye molecules and thus not allowing other available molecules to be adsorbed and degraded. Wang et al [56] explored the photocatalytic activity of copper selenides nanoparticles for the methylene blue dye. The results revealed that up to 50% of degradation was obtained within min time interval.…”