Controllable Synthesis And Photocatalytic Properties Of Copper Based Nanocomposite Material

Novel copper based nanocomposite has become an research focous in material,this is because the copper based nanomaterial has good performance and wideapplications in catalyst, sensor, etc. At the same time, the properties of nanomaterialdepends a lot on the size, morphology and composition. Therefore, to synthesizecopper based nanocomposite with excellent photocatalytic properties, this paperfocous on structure and size controllable synthesis of nanomaterial. The mainachievements of this thesis are as follows:(1) CuO nanomaterial is synthesized by a hydrothermal method. It is found that thestirring temperature of CuO nanomaterial has a profound effect on the size, structureand shape that are technologically important to optical, electrical and catalyticproperties of the final products. By increasing the stirring temperature (30℃~100℃),the particle size of CuO could be tuned from500to50nm. The specific surface areaof CuO preparaed at100℃is46.8m2/g, much larger than that of commercial CuO(16.7m2/g). The results indicates that the photocatalytic performance is improved withthe decreasing particle size of CuOs (CuO100,91.18%in80min) due to the enhancedcharge separation efficiency.(2) Copper oxide (CuO) has been successfully decorated on graphene nanosheets(GNS) using a simple hydrothermal technique. Stirring temperature in synthesis isfound to be effective for controlling the size of composites. Moreover, with theincrease of stirring temperature，the CuO nanoparticles loaded on GNS change fromshuttle-like to rod-like. The nanocomposites synthesized at100℃stirringtemperature exhibites good catalytic activity towards the degradation of Rhodamine B(RhB) under visible light irradiation, decomposing97.2%RhB solution in15min.The catalytic performance was improved with the decreasing particle size ofnanocomposites due to the enhanced charge separation efficiency in CuO/GNSs.(3) Cu2O/GNS nanocomposities are synthesized by an electron beam irradiation method. It is found that the irradiation dose has a profound effect on the size, structureand shape that were technologically important to optical, electrical and catalyticproperties of the final products. By increasing the irradiation dose, the CuO/GNS wasreduced into Cu2O/GNS of controlling size from250to15nm. The results indicatedthat the photocatalytic performance was improved with the increasing irradiation dozein the preparation process, the sample prepared at350KGy can photodegrade94.6%MB solution in100min. The reason for improvement was that EB irradiation canarouse oxygenated groups on graphene surface. The carbon oxygen bands excitatedby EB irradiation on graphene surface can be considered as defect sites, which couldincrease the affinity of graphene to Cu2O through electrostatic force, thus providingmore growing spots for Cu2O crystal.