Temperature-dependent crystallization of Cu2O rhombic dodecahedra

Size and shape uniformity of nanomaterials are extremely important for their applications in batteries, supercapacitors, catalysis, etc.

Dynamic growth of rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O crystals controlled by reaction temperature and their size-dependent photocatalytic performance

Compared with low-index {100} or {111} planes of Cu₂O crystals, rhombic dodecahedra (RD) Cu₂O crystals exposing 12 {110} facets exhibit the most superior photodegradation of organic pollutants. Herein, a series of RD Cu₂O crystals with different sizes were successfully synthesized by precisely adjusting the reaction temperature ranging from 40 °C to 100 °C. The results revealed that truncated rhombic dodecahedra (TRD) Cu₂O crystals were fabricated when the temperatures was 40 °C. More importantly, on raising the temperature to above 40 °C, Cu₂O architectures dynamically evolved from TRD to RD. Meanwhile, the sizes gradually decreased with elevation of the temperature, while the RD morphology of Cu₂O crystals remained, demonstrating the importance of temperature for determining the morphology and size of Cu₂O crystals. In addition, we also carefully investigated the visible-light photodegradation performance of Cu₂O crystals for methyl orange (MO). RD Cu₂O crystals exhibited superior photocatalytic activity compared with TRD, and showed size-dependent photocatalytic activity for MO. The photocatalytic activity of RD Cu₂O crystals can be greatly improved by decreasing the size. In particular, RD-60 with the minimum size achieved the best photocatalytic properties compared to the other RD and TRD Cu₂O crystals, and still displayed high photocatalytic efficiency even after three cycles. Such results advance the understanding that temperature modulation serves as an effective means to fabricate RD Cu₂O crystals.

Compared with low-index {100} or {111} planes of Cu₂O crystals, rhombic dodecahedra (RD) Cu₂O crystals exposing 12 {110} facets exhibit the most superior photodegradation of organic pollutants.

Cu2O NPs decorated BiPO4 photo-catalyst for enhanced organic contaminant degradation under visible light irradiation

The surface of BiPO₄ was decorated with Cu₂O nanoparticles (NPs) (hereafter designed as Cu₂O/BiPO₄) via an interfacial self-assembly method.