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Room temperature electrochemical synthesis of CuO flower-like microspheres and their electrooxidative activity towards hydrogen peroxide

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Abstract

We describe a facile electrochemical route for the synthesis of CuO flower-like microspheres (CuO FMs) by anodic dissolution of bulk Cu in sodium hydroxide solution at room temperature and without heating. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction revealed that the CuO FMs are phase-pure monoclinic crystallites and comprised of CuO nanoflakes. The concentration of NaOH has a large effect on the size of the CuO FMs. The possible formation mechanism is discussed. The CuO FMs are electrocatalytically active towards the oxidation of H2O2, and this has resulted in a sensor for H2O2. To our knowledge, this is the simplest way to obtain clean CuO FMs.

A facile electrochemical route, which is carried out at room temperature (25 °C), is introduced for the fast fabrication of CuO flower-like microspheres (CuO FMs). The CuO FMs modified glassy carbon electrode exhibits good electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of H2O2.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology of China, the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Shandong (Y2008B13), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20973103) and the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB707400).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry of the Ministry of Education of China, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Lu Lu & Xirong Huang

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  1. Lu Lu
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  2. Xirong Huang
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Correspondence to Xirong Huang.

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Lu, L., Huang, X. Room temperature electrochemical synthesis of CuO flower-like microspheres and their electrooxidative activity towards hydrogen peroxide. Microchim Acta 175, 151–157 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-011-0663-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-011-0663-7

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