Preparation And Photocatalytic Properties Of Copper Oxide And Its Composite Structures

Due to their advantages, such as non-toxic, cheap, broad absorption spectra, and so on, great attentions have been paid to copper-based oxides nanometer semiconductor photocatalysts. It is well known that the morphology and structure of nanometer materials have a great effect on their properties and applications. Thus it is of practical importance to control the morphology of materials, which is conducive to improve their photocatalytic activity. Based on above analysis, we used the simple and effective method, based on the control of reaction parameters, to prepare copper-based oxides nanometer semiconductor photocatalysts and its composite and then studied their photocatalytic properties in this paper. The work of this paper is mainly divided into the following five aspects:(1) We prepared well-defined porous dodecahedron Cu2O nanostructures for the first time, by adopting solvothermal method. To evaluate the photocatalytic activity of the products, we measured the optical property changes of methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution in the presence of Cu2O dodecahedron or other Cu2O intermediates under irradiation of UV/visible light for a given time, respectively. It reveals that UV irradiation will enhance photodegradation of MB. Possibly because the energy of UV light is stronger than visible-light, which could improve the photocatalytic efficiency.(2) A novel Cu2O sedum rubrotinctum shaped nanostructure been successfully synthesized in a water/oil (w/o) microemulsion for the first time. Reaction time has great influence on the morphology and size of Cu2O products. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized sedum rubrotinctum shaped Cu2O photocatalyst was evaluated by the degradation of MB under sunlight irradiation. A degradation of 98.94% was achieved in 90 min irradiation time. The result further confirmed the activity of the as-prepared Cu2O photocatalyst.(3) A facile route was developed for the preparation of porous hexapod CuO nanostructures based on a solvothermal route with subsequent calcination. The photocatalytic activitiy of the as-synthesized CuO sample was examined toward the degradation of phenol (PhOH) under irradiation of visible light. It only takes about 60 min for the CuO hexapod nanostructures to degrade PhOH under visible-light irradiation. The degradation rate is about 82.5% in 60 min. In order to test the stability of the catalyst, recycling experiments were carried out. The catalyst showed strong photocatalytic ability for the degradation of phenol for five cycles.(4) A facile route was developed for the preparation of core-shell CuO nanostructures based on a solvothermal route with subsequent calcination. The crystal growth process of the porous core-shell CuO nanostructures accords with’"the ostwald ripening mechanism". The photocatalytic activities of the all the synthesized CuO samples were examined toward the degradation of PhOH and decolouration of MB. The CuO core-shell nanostructure is an effective photocatalyst for the direct degradation of PhOH and decolouration of MB and its photocatalytic performances was better than other CuO intermediate products, P25 and commercial CuO samples. The catalyst showed strong photocatalytic ability for the degradation of phenol for five cycles.(5) A novel Cu2O/Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) hierarchical chrysanthemum-like nanocomposite has been successfully synthesized by a facile wet chemical method for the first time. Through the analysis of the growth process, we put forward the growth mechanism. The photocatalytic activities of the all the synthesized CU2O/CNTS samples were examined toward the degradation of PhOH. It only takes 60 min for the Cu2O/CNTs chrysanthemum-like nanostructure to degrade PhOH. The degradation rate of phenol for the CU2O/CNTs chrysanthemum-like nanocomposite is about 85.8% in 60 min under visible light irradiation. The catalyst showed strong photocatalytic ability in the degradation of PhOH for five cycles.