A green strategy to prepare metal oxide superstructure from metal-organic frameworks

Metal or metal oxides with diverse superstructures have become one of the most promising functional materials in sensor, catalysis, energy conversion, etc. In this work, a novel metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-directed method to prepare metal or metal oxide superstructure was proposed. In this strategy, nodes (metal ions) in MOFs as precursors to form ordered building blocks which are spatially separated by organic linkers were transformed into metal oxide micro/nanostructure by a green method. Two kinds of Cu-MOFs which could reciprocally transform by changing solvent were prepared as a model to test the method. Two kinds of novel CuO with three-dimensional (3D) urchin-like and 3D rods-like superstructures composed of nanoparticles, nanowires and nanosheets were both obtained by immersing the corresponding Cu-MOFs into a NaOH solution. Based on the as-formed CuO superstructures, a novel and sensitive nonenzymatic glucose sensor was developed. The small size, hierarchical superstructures and large surface area of the resulted CuO superstructures eventually contribute to good electrocatalytic activity of the prepared sensor towards the oxidation of glucose. The proposed method of hierarchical superstructures preparation is simple, efficient, cheap and easy to mass production, which is obviously superior to pyrolysis. It might open up a new way for hierarchical superstructures preparation.