Study On Controlled Synthsis And Photocatalytic Property Of Cu₂O And TiO₂Micro/Nano Materials

To design and delicately control the shape of micro/nanocrystals is one of the most important issues in nanoscience, chemistry and physics owing to the close correlations of the surface morphologies with the electronic structure, bonding, surface energy, and chemical reactivity. Cu2O and TiO2, as important semiconductor materials respectively, are the promising materials with significant applications in the field of solar cells, photocatalysis and lithium-ion batteries et al. Thus, it is significant that developing the facile and effective strategy for controllable synthesis of Cu2O and TiO2, and researching the relevance between morphology and properties.In this paper, we were focus on the synthesis of Cu2O and TiO2semiconductor materials with controllable morphology and structures. Meanwhile, we have prepared the Cu2O microcrystal with controllable crystallographic facets and mesoporous anatase TiO2non-spherical nanocages with high surface area. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) techniques were employed to characterize the samples. We demonstrated the photocatalytic activity of obtained samples by the degradation of organic pollutants in irradiation and estimated the effect of the morphology and structures on the photocatalytic activity. The main research work and experimental content was listed as follows.1. We reported a facile and effective strategy for preparing Cu2O microcrystal with controllable crystallographic facets. In this method, groups of Cu2O crystals evolution from cube to74-facets polyhedrons were prepared through simply altered the NaOH concentration in aqueous solution of CuSO4/NaOH/ascorbic acid system. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize the obtained samples. In addition, novel1Cu2O microcrysta74-facet polyhedrons with high-index{744} facets were firstly reported. The photocatalytic activity of Cu2O crystal high-index facets were estimated by degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) in Visible light irradiation.2. Non-spherical TiO2mesoporous nanocages with different shapes and tunable interior void space were prepared by sol-gel method, and Cu2O crystal was used as template in the method. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Barret-Joyner-Halenda (BJH), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize the obtained samples. Meanwhile, the formation mechanism was proposed. In addition, the photocatalytic performances of the obtained samples were estimated.3. The Cu functionalized TiO2mesoporous cubic nanobox was obtained. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) techniques were employed to characterize the obtained samples. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of TiO2mesoporous cubic nanobox was improved though Cu functionalized.