Abstract
Cuprous oxide microsphere material was fabricated by electrochemical deposition using polystyrene particles as template. The samples are characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction, and UV–vis spectrophotometer. The SEM image shows the morphology and size of the microspheres, and the thickness of covered Cu2O layer is about 100 nm. Due to the unique microspherical structure, the surface area is larger, and the optical absorption is better in Cu2O microsphere material than in bulk Cu2O film, which makes the degradation of methylene blue faster and photoelectrocatalytic oxidation of glucose stronger on Cu2O microsphere material than on bulk Cu2O film under visible light illumination. The enhanced photo- and photoelectro-catalytic activity makes the Cu2O microsphere material more suitable for solar applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Yu Y, Du FP, Yu JC, Zhuang YY, Wong PK (2004) One-dimensional shape controlled preparation of porous Cu2O nano-whiskers by using CTAB as a template. J Solid State Chem 177:4640–4647
Wang W, Wang G, Wang X, Zhan Y, Liu Y, Zheng C (2002) Synthesis and characterization of Cu2O nanowires by a novel reduction route. Adv Mater 14:67–69
Lu C, Qi L, Yang J, Wang X, Zhang D, Xie J, Ma J (2005) One-pot synthesis of octahedral Cu2O nanocages by a catalytic solution route. Adv Mater 17:2562–2567
Zhang JT, Liu JF, Peng Q, Wang X, Li YD (2006) Nearly monodisperse Cu2O and CuO nanospheres: preparation and applications for sensitive gas sensors. Chem Mater 18:867–871
Rothenberger G, Moser J, Graetzel M, Serpone N, Sharma DK (1985) Charge carrier trapping and recombination dynamics in small semiconductor particles. J Am Chem Soc 107:8054–8059
Tang Y, Chen Z, Jia Z, Zhang L, Li J (2005) Electrodeposition and characterization of nanocrystalline cuprous oxide thin films on TiO2 films. Mater Lett 59:434–438
Alivisatos AP (1996) Semiconductor clusters, nanocrystals, and quantum dots. Science 271:933–937
El-Sayed MA (2001) Some interesting properties of metals confined in time and nanometer space of different shapes. Acc Chem Res 34:257–264
Jiang LC, Zhang WD (2009) Electrodeposition of TiO2 nanoparticles on multiwalled carbon nanotube arrays for hydrogen peroxide sensing. Electroanalysis 21:988–993
Luo Y, Tu Y, Ren Q, Dai X, Xing L, Li J (2009) Surfactant-free fabrication of Cu2O nanosheets from Cu colloids and their tunable optical properties. J Solid State Chem 182:182–186
Wang Z, Wang H, Wang L, Pan L (2009) One-pot synthesis of single-crystalline Cu2O hollow nanocubes. J Phys Chem Solids 70:719–722
Zhang X, Xie Y, Xu F, Liu X, Xu D (2003) Shape-controlled synthesis of submicro-sized cuprous oxide octahedral. Inorg Chem Commun 6:1390–1392
Xu H, Wang W, Zhu W (2006) A facile strategy to porous materials: coordination-assisted heterogeneous dissolution route to the spherical Cu2O single crystallites with hierarchical pores. Micropor Mesopor Mat 95:321–328
Huang L, Peng F, Yu H, Wang H (2008) Solution combustion synthesis of MgAl2O4 using fuel mixtures. Mater Res Bull 43:3408–3415
Shin HS, Song JY, Yu J (2009) Template-assisted electrochemical synthesis of cuprous oxide nanowires. Mater Lett 63:397–399
Bartlett PN, Birkin PR, Ghanem MA (2000) Electrochemical deposition of macroporous platinum,palladium and cobalt films using polystyrene templates. Chem Commun 17:1671–1672
Duan G, Cai W, Luo Y, Sun F (2007) A hierarchically structured Ni(OH)2 monolayer hollow-sphere array and its tunable optical properties over a large region. Adv Funct Mater 17:644–650
Li Y, Li W, Chou S, Chen J (2008) Synthesis, characterization and electrochemical properties of aluminum-substituted alpha-Ni(OH)2 hollow spheres. J Alloys Compd 456:339–343
Yang Y, Chu Y, Zhang Y, Yang F, Liu J (2006) Polystyrene-ZnO core-shell microspheres and hollow ZnO structures synthesized with the sulfonated polystyrene templates. J Solid State Chem 179:470–475
Watanabe M, Aritomo H, Yamaguchi I, Shinagawa T, Tamai T, Tasaka A, Izaki M (2007) Selective preparation of zinc oxide nanostructures by electrodeposition on the templates of surface-functionalized polymer particles. Chem Lett 36:680–681
Izaki M, Watanabe M, Aritomo H, Yamaguchi I, Asahina S, Shinagawa T, Chigane M, Inaba M, Tasaka A (2008) Zinc oxide nano-cauliflower array with room temperature ultraviolet light emission. Cryst Growth Des 8:1418–1421
Li S, Zheng J, Yang W, Zhao Y, Liu Y (2008) Preparation and characterization of three-dimensional ordered macroporous rare earth oxide-CeO2. J Porous Mater 15:589–592
Yamaguchi I, Watanabe M, Shinagawa T, Chigane M, Inaba M, Tasaka A, Izaki M (2009) Preparation of core/shell and hollow nanostructures of cerium oxide by electrodeposition on a polystyrene sphere template. ACS Appl Mater Inter 1:1070–1075
Li M, Lu Q, Nuli Y, Qian X (2007) Core-shell and hollow microspheres composed of tin oxide nanocrystals as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Electrochem Solid State Lett 10:K33–K37
Xia XH, Tu JP, Xiang JY, Huang XH, Wang XL, Zhao XB (2010) Hierarchical porous cobalt oxide array films prepared by electrodeposition through polystyrene sphere template and their applications for lithium ion batteries. J Power Sources 195:2014–2022
Bartlett PN, Birkin PR, Ghanem MA, Toh CS (2001) Electrochemical syntheses of highly ordered macroporous conducting polymers grown around self-assembled colloidal templates. J Mater Chem 11:849–853
Sumida T, Wada Y, Kitamura T, Yanagida S (2000) Electrochemical preparation of macroporous polypyrrole films with regular arrays of interconnected spherical voids. Chem Commun. 17:1613–1614
Holland BT, Blanford CF, Do T, Stein A (1999) Synthesis of highly ordered, three-dimensional, macroporous structures of amorphous or crystalline inorganic oxides, phosphates, and hybrid composites. Chem Mater 11:795–805
Nagao D, Kameyama R, Matsumoto H, Kobayashi Y, Konno M (2008) Single-and multi-layered patterns of polystyrene and silica particles assembled with a simple dip-coating. Colloid Surf A-Physicochem Eng Asp 317:722–729
Shang W, Shi X, Zhang X, Ma C, Wang C (2007) Growth and characterization of electro-deposited Cu2O and Cu thin films by amperometric I–T method on ITO/glass substrate. Appl Phys A-Mater 87:129–135
Paracchino A, Laporte V, Sivula K, Grätzel M, Thimsen E (2011) Highly active oxide photocathode for photoelectrochemical water reduction. Nat Mater 10:456–462
Xu H, Wang W, Zhu W (2006) Shape evolution and size-controllable synthesis of Cu2O octahedra and their morphology-dependent photocatalytic properties. J Phys Chem B 110:13829–13834
Li H, Liu R, Zhao R, Zheng Y, Chen W, Xu Z (2006) Morphology control of electrodeposited Cu2O crystals in aqueous solutions using room temperature hydrophilic ionic liquids. Crystal Growth Des 6:2795–2798
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the support of New Teachers’ Fund for Doctor Stations, Ministry of Education (20126101120012), Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (Program No.12JK0578 and 12JK0617), Science Foundation of Northwest University (No. NF10005), and Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecular Chemistry (Ministry of Education, ZS11034).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, X., Yu, S., Cao, Y. et al. Cu2O-coated polystyrene microsphere materials with enhanced photo- and photoelectro-catalytic activity. J Solid State Electrochem 17, 1429–1434 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-013-2015-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-013-2015-5