Facile synthesis of hollow Cu2O octahedral and spherical nanocrystals and their morphology-dependent photocatalytic properties.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Feng, Lili Zhang, Chunlei Gao, Guo Cui, Daxiang
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	Herein, we report that octahedral and spherical Cu2O samples with hollow structures are synthesized in high yield by reducing Cu(EDA)22+ complex with hydrazine. A series of experiments are carried out to investigate the factors which impact on the morphology of the Cu2O samples. It is observed that ethylenediamine (EDA) serves as a molecular template in the formation of hollow structure. Octahedral Cu2O with solid structure is prepared without EDA. When EDA is added, Cu2O sample with hollow structure is formed. Different morphologies of Cu2O such as spherical and octahedral could be obtained by adjusting the concentration of EDA and NaOH. The temporal crystal growth mechanism is proposed. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared Cu2O nanoparticles are evaluated by monitoring two dyes (methyl orange and congo red) using UV-visible spectrophotometer. Results show that the order of photocatalytic activity of Cu2O with different morphologies is as follows: hollow octahedral morphology > hollow sphere morphology > solid octahedral morphology. The hollow octahedral Cu2O nanoparticles would be a promising material on applications for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.
ISSN	19317573
Journal	Nanoscale Research Letters
Volume Number	7
PubMed Central reference number	PMC3508613
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	22647408
e-ISSN	1556276X
DOI	10.1186/1556-276x-7-276
Language	English
Publisher	Springer
Publisher Date	2012-05-30
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright ©2012 Feng et al.; licensee Springer.
Subject Keyword	Cuprous oxide Crystal growth Hollow structure Octahedral nanocrystals Photocatalysis
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Condensed Matter Physics Materials Science