Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of sea urchin-like Cu2O architectures

Abstract

The uniform hierarchical sea urchin-like Cu2O architectures have been successfully prepared via an ultrasound-assisted method. The detailed morphology and structure of the synthesized hierarchical nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A series of observed intermediates disclose the possible process of forming hierarchical Cu2O architectures, and the possible chemical reactions involved in the construction of the Cu2O microstructures is proposed in order to gain a better control over their shape, crystallinity, and yield. The prepared sea urchin-like Cu2O particles exhibit higher adsorption ability and photocatalytic activity for photodegradation of methyl orange aqueous solution under visible-light illumination than other Cu2O particles with different morphologies (mesoporous spheres, star-like, meatball particles, broken flower-like).