Synthesis Of Cuprous Oxides Nano-Materials And Their Catalytic Performances

Cu2O crystal has the advantages of low consumption, non-toxic, etc, and is considered as a promising functional material, which widely used in solar cells, lithium ion battery, biological sensors, magnetic storage, and microdevices. The good electro-optical properties of Cu2O make it also be used as photocatalyst in degradation of organic pollutants, and H2evolution from photoelectrolysis of water under visible light illumination. Since many surface and shape dependent properties in nature have been demonstrated for Cu2O, the way on controlled growth of Cu2O crystal with given shape and exposed surfaces is of critical importance. The preparation of Cu2O micro-nano crystals via electrodeposition and hydrothermal method were presented in this work, and the catalytic properties of the obtained products were investiaged.Firstly, Cu2O films with different orientations and morphologies were prepared through a simple electrodeposition approach onto stainless steel without any template or surfactant. A distinct change in the orientation of Cu2O film with deposition time is revealed via X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The morphology change in the Cu2O films tuned using different Cu(Ⅱ) precursors is discussed. The orientation determines the crystallite morphology, enabling a direct control over the electrodeposition of Cu2O coatings. In addition, the electrocatalytic activities of the obtained Cu2O films in the degradation of organic contaminants in water are investigated.Secondly, Cu2O micro/nanostructures with various morphologies were successfully synthesized by using amino acids to reduce the coordinated Cu2+ions in basic solution under hydrothermal conditions. The effects of amino acid reducing agents on the structure, size and shape of Cu2O microcrystals were investigated, and the formation mechanism of cuprous oxide microcrystals was proposed. The result showed that the amino acids exhibit good structure-directing activities. The photo-catalytic activity of as-prepared Cu2O microcrystal for decomposition of methyl orange was investigated, in which the shape-dependent catalytic properties were revealed.