Synthesis And Photocatalytic Properties Of CuO Nano Materials

With the development of industry and the increasing of population,domestic waste and industrial waste have made water pollution more and more serious.The pollution and shortage of water not only have an effect on human’s daily life and health but also may endanger the existence of human and other living creatures.Therefore,finding an environmental-friendly and low-cost water pollution treatment method that is suitable for large-scale application,has attracted lots of interests.CuO,with advantages of good photocatalytic property,nontoxicity,low cost and abundant sources,has been widely studied in photocatalytic field.In this paper,CuO based nanomaterials with a substrate have been prepared by room-temperature reaction or low-temperature hydrothermal reaction and were applied as photocatalysis.Firstly,CuO nanowires（NWs）were synthesized on Cu substrate by room-temperature reaction.CuO NWs were characterized by scanning electron microscope（SEM）,X-ray diffraction（XRD）and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）,respectively.The growth mechanism of CuO NWs indicated that proportion and species of precursor reactant had an influence on the morphology of CuO.During the growth of CuO NWs,Cu foil acted as substrate as well as Cu source.The photocatalytic result showed that as-prepared CuO NWs exhibited good photocatalytic property.In order to further increase photocatalytic activity of CuO NWs,ZnO nanoparticles（NPs）were prepared on CuO NWs by solvethermal reaction to form ZnO/CuO heterostructure.We have characterized the morphology,crystalline structure and elements of as-prepared samples.In photoluminescence（PL）spectra,ZnO/CuO heterostructure exhibited weaker emission peaks in comparison to that of CuO NWs,which indicated that formation of heterostructure could inhibit the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes.Photocatalytic experiment results show that photocataytic activity of ZnO/CuO heterostructure was higher than that of CuO NWs.Lastly,CuO nanospine（NSs）were prepared on TiO₂ nanotubes（NTs）to form CuO/TiO₂ heterstructure by hydrothermal method using Cu（NO₃）₂ as precursor.SEM,transmission electron microscope（TEM）,XRD and XPS were used to characterize the as-prepared sample.The growth mechanism of CuO NSs indicated that OH^-ions took an important part in the formation of CuO.When large amounts of CuO were produced,they would self-assemble to form carambola-shaped CuO.Photocatalytic results indicated that compared with TiO2 NTs,CuO/TiO2 heterstructure showed enhanced photocatalytic property.This can attribute to the formation of heterostructure that can promote separation of carriers,and the stronger light absorption ability of CuO/TiO₂ heterstructure.