Porous CuO superstructure: precursor-mediated fabrication, gas sensing and photocatalytic properties

A facile route was developed for the large-scale preparation of porous CuO superstructures based on a hydrothermal route with subsequent calcination. The CuO superstructures show "box-like" shape and are composed of microplatelets with high porosity resulting from the thermal decomposition of the precursor. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller N(2) adsorption-desorption analyses were employed to characterize the microstructure, size and crystalline phase of the porous cupric oxide product. The porous CuO superstructures with pore size of about 20 nm have a surface area of 18.2 m(2)/g. The gas-sensing measurements of the porous CuO superstructures demonstrate that the obtained CuO product exhibits higher sensing response to ethanol, propanol and acetone than commercial CuO powder. In addition, the enhanced photocatalytic activity of the porous CuO superstructures was also demonstrated with the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue as a probe reaction. It is believed that the enhanced gas-sensing and catalytic properties are originated from their unique openly porous microstructure, which is highly beneficial to the reagent diffusion and mass transportation.