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Cu2O-Au nanocomposites with novel structures and remarkable chemisorption capacity and photocatalytic activity

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Abstract

The decomposition of CuH nanoparticles in aqueous solution has been successfully developed as a novel method for the preparation of Cu2O nanoparticles. In particular, we found that the decomposition of CuH nanoparticles in aqueous solution could be catalyzed by Au colloids, forming Cu2O-Au nanocomposites. The composition and structure of the resulting Cu2O-Au nanocomposites have been characterized in detail by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Their visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity toward various dye molecules has also been investigated. Depending on the Au:Cu ratio, Cu2O-Au nanocomposites exhibit different novel nanostructures including a beautiful flower-like nanostructure that consists of polycrystalline Cu2O, amorphous Cu2O and Au colloids. We propose that the rapidly-generated bubbles of H2 during the course of the catalytic decomposition reaction drive the simultaneously-formed Cu2O to form amorphous curved thin foils and might also act as a template to assemble curved thin foils of amorphous Cu2O, polycrystalline Cu2O and Au colloids into uniform nanostructures. A Cu2O-Au nanocomposite with a Cu:Au ratio of 40 exhibits remarkable chemisorption capacity and visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity towards methyl orange and acid orange 7 and is a promising chemisorption-photocatalysis integrated catalyst. The catalytic decomposition of the metal hydride might open up a new approach for the fabrication of other metal/metal oxide nanocomposites with novel nanostructures and properties.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Qing Hua, Fucheng Shi, Sujie Chang, Zhiquan Jiang & Weixin Huang

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Qing Hua, Fucheng Shi, Kai Chen, Sujie Chang & Weixin Huang

  3. Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Qing Hua, Fucheng Shi, Sujie Chang, Yunsheng Ma & Weixin Huang

  4. National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, China

    Guoqiang Pan

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  1. Qing Hua
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  2. Fucheng Shi
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  3. Kai Chen
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  8. Weixin Huang
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Correspondence to Weixin Huang.

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Hua, Q., Shi, F., Chen, K. et al. Cu2O-Au nanocomposites with novel structures and remarkable chemisorption capacity and photocatalytic activity. Nano Res. 4, 948–962 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0151-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-011-0151-8

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