One-Pot Synthesis of Cu2O/Cu Self-Assembled Hollow Nanospheres with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

Cu2O/Cu hollow spheres are prepared using one-pot template-free solvent-thermal synthesis route with (CH3COO)2Cu·H2O as a precursor. With the reaction time increasing gradually from 2 h to 20 h, the morphology of the Cu2O/Cu evolves from nanoparticle to hollow nanosphere. The hollow structure is obt...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bo Zhou, Zhiguo Liu, Haijun Zhang, Yan Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2014-01-01
Series:Journal of Nanomaterials
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/291964
Description
Summary:Cu2O/Cu hollow spheres are prepared using one-pot template-free solvent-thermal synthesis route with (CH3COO)2Cu·H2O as a precursor. With the reaction time increasing gradually from 2 h to 20 h, the morphology of the Cu2O/Cu evolves from nanoparticle to hollow nanosphere. The hollow structure is obtained when the cooling rate falls down to 0.7°C/min. And the content of Cu in the hollow spheres also can be easily controlled by adjusting the solvent-thermal synthesis time. Using photocatalytic degradation of phenol as the probe molecules under visible-light illumination, we have investigated the influence of hollow structure on the photocatalytic activity of Cu2O/Cu. The prepared hollow sphere Cu2O/Cu particles exhibited a higher photodegradation capability than nanoparticles and solid spheres. When the content of Cu lies in the range of 11–86 wt%, the samples exhibit higher photocatalytic performance, indicating that the Cu2O/Cu particles with hollow structure are promising candidates for the processing of pollutants.
ISSN:1687-4110
1687-4129