Objective(s): In this study, a new copper precursor was prepared from the combination of Cu(CH3COO)2∙H2O (1 g in 5 ml of methanol) and benzoic acid (1 g in 5 ml of methanol) at room temperature. Following that, the copper precursor was calcined at the temperature of 500ºC and 600ºC for 1.5 hours to form CuO/Cu2O nanocomposites with the code numbers of CuO-1 and CuO-2, respectively. Materi...

L-Cys-modified Fe3O4 was first prepared by a one-step partially-reduced method under mild conditions. Then, novel pine cone-like Fe3O4@Cu2O/Cu nanocomposites (NCs) with photomagnetic difunction were successfully synthesized via a one-pot solvothermal method on Fe3O4 without any additional linker or reducer. The average diameter of the as-synthesized products was about 4 μm, and the products wer...

The oxidation of copper catalysts during ethylene epoxidation was characterized using in situ photoemission spectroscopy and electron microscopy. Gas chromatography, proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry and electron-ionization mass spectrometry were used to characterize the catalytic properties of the oxidized copper. We find that copper corrodes during epoxidation in a 1 : 1 mixture of o...

For the first time, one-pot solution-phase selective-etching to create cuboctahedral Cu2O crystals enclosed by both stepped {111} surfaces and smooth {100} surfaces has been demonstrated. Investigation of photocatalytic performances indicates that the stepped cuboctahedral Cu2O crystals have higher photocatalytic activities than those of the common smooth ones.

Novel etched Cu2O cubes with exposed {110} facets are synthesized via an oxidative etching method at room temperature. The photocatalytic performance indicates that these architectures show higher photocatalytic activity than that of the normal Cu2O cubes in the degradation of methylene orange.

Cu2O is a narrow band gap material serving as an important candidate for photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction. However, the main challenge that hinders its practical exploitation poor photostability, due to oxidation into CuO by photoexcited holes. Here, we thoroughly minimize photo-oxidation of nanowires growing thin layer TiO2 protective and amorphous VOx cocatalyst using magnetro...