TY - JOUR
T1 - Efficient, recyclable, and affordable daylight induced Cu/Cu2O/CuI photocatalyst via an inexpensive iodine sublimation process
AU - Uthirakumar, Periyayya
AU - Devendiran, M.
AU - Kuznetsov, Andrej Yu
AU - Kim, Gyu Cheol
AU - Lee, In Hwan
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Brain Pool Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT ( 2019H1D3A2A01102099 ), and the support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIT) ( NRF-2020R1A2B5B03001603 ).
PY - 2021/1/30
Y1 - 2021/1/30
N2 - The invention of an efficient, recyclable, and affordable daylight induced photocatalyst is highly desirable, for example to enhance the sustainability in industrial sectors requiring wastewater treatments. In the present paper, a facile and inexpensive iodine sublimation process was developed to prepare freestanding and flexible Cu/Cu2O/CuI sheets to use as daylight photocatalysts capable to degrade toxic pollutants continuously without creating secondary pollution issues. The structural, chemical, and electronic properties of the Cu/Cu2O/CuI nanostructures were systematically investigated. In particular, intriguing hierarchical structures were observed in form of the 20–30 nm CuI nanoparticles self-assembled into the ∼400–500 nm sized CuI nanoclusters. Indeed, ∼92% of the Rhodamine B – often referred as RhB - dye degradation was readily achieved, and the efficiency was controlled simply by adjusting the number of sheets used. Importantly, in contrast with the conventional nanoparticle photocatalysts, the free-standing and flexible Cu/Cu2O/CuI sheets demonstrated excellent recyclability and versatility of handling. Moreover, potential mechanisms for suppressing the recombination of the photogenerated carriers were discussed. As a result, combining the fundamental data and the practically achieved results, the freestanding and flexible Cu/Cu2O/CuI nanostructures are suitable candidates for an industrial upscaling as daylight activated photocatalysts for the wastewater treatment.
AB - The invention of an efficient, recyclable, and affordable daylight induced photocatalyst is highly desirable, for example to enhance the sustainability in industrial sectors requiring wastewater treatments. In the present paper, a facile and inexpensive iodine sublimation process was developed to prepare freestanding and flexible Cu/Cu2O/CuI sheets to use as daylight photocatalysts capable to degrade toxic pollutants continuously without creating secondary pollution issues. The structural, chemical, and electronic properties of the Cu/Cu2O/CuI nanostructures were systematically investigated. In particular, intriguing hierarchical structures were observed in form of the 20–30 nm CuI nanoparticles self-assembled into the ∼400–500 nm sized CuI nanoclusters. Indeed, ∼92% of the Rhodamine B – often referred as RhB - dye degradation was readily achieved, and the efficiency was controlled simply by adjusting the number of sheets used. Importantly, in contrast with the conventional nanoparticle photocatalysts, the free-standing and flexible Cu/Cu2O/CuI sheets demonstrated excellent recyclability and versatility of handling. Moreover, potential mechanisms for suppressing the recombination of the photogenerated carriers were discussed. As a result, combining the fundamental data and the practically achieved results, the freestanding and flexible Cu/Cu2O/CuI nanostructures are suitable candidates for an industrial upscaling as daylight activated photocatalysts for the wastewater treatment.
KW - Cu/CuO/CuI
KW - Daylight photocatalyst
KW - Flexible substrates
KW - Nanocrystalline materials
KW - Rhodamine dye
KW - Sublimation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147007
DO - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091344906
VL - 537
JO - Applied Surface Science
JF - Applied Surface Science
SN - 0169-4332
M1 - 147007
ER -