Pt-decorated CuO nanosheets and their application in the visible light photocatalytic water splitting reaction
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Pt‑decorated CuO nanosheets and their application in the visible light photocatalytic water splitting reaction Mohammad W. Kadi1 · Reda M. Mohamed1,2 Received: 19 June 2020 / Accepted: 6 August 2020 © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020
Abstract CuO nanocompositions found many applications in chemistry and physics. However, its large band gap and charge carrier recombination when used as a photo catalyst hinder its effectiveness. In this paper we report a simple sol–gel method for the synthesis of mesoporous CuO nanosheets followed by the application of photo-assisted Pt incorporation to produce a uniformly Pt-decorated mesoporous CuO nanosheets. The nanosheet structure, crystallinity, morphology, and particle-size were confirmed employing XRD measurements, transition electron microscopy. The synthesized mesoporous Pt/CuO nanosheets showed high pore volumes of 0.350 cm3/g and a large surface area of 250 m2/g. The effectiveness of the photocatalyst was tested via application in the water splitting reaction under visible light and the use of glycerol as a positive hole scavenger. Pt/CuO yielded ~ 5400 µmol/g of H 2, 7-times higher compared to pure mesoporous CuO. Higher efficiency is explained by narrower band gap, superior light harvesting capacity, and the efficient charge-carrier separation due to the use of glycerol. Photocurrent and photoluminescence were used to show the effect of Pt decoration on the photocatalytic efficiency of the material through the electron transfer from CuO to Pt atoms. Keywords CuO nanosheets · Visible photocatalyst · Hydrogen production
Introduction Copper is ubiquitous in the environment and is essential element for biological processes in humans and plants. Its high abundance, low cost, physical, and chemical properties prompted its use in vast array of applications. With the advent in nanomaterials and technology, synthesis of metal oxides and tailoring of their morphology and other properties received researcher’s attention to develop materials for certain applications. Copper oxides have found applications in numerous fields such as gas and bio sensing, catalysis and photocatalysis, solar cells, supercapacitors, waste water treatment and other applications (Zhang et al. 2014; Ameh and Sayes 2019; Karthikeyan et al. 2020; Ojha et al. 2017; Wei et al. 2018; Fang and Guo 2018). Researchers developed * Reda M. Mohamed [email protected] 1
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Advanced Materials Department, Central Metallurgical R&D Institute, CMRDI, P.O. Box 87, Helwan 11421, Cairo, Egypt
2
many methods of synthesis of CuO and Cu2O for a desired application. Khooshechin et al. studied the effect of SDS surfactant and ultrasoincation on stability and heat transfer properties of CuO nanoparticles (Khooshechin et al. 2020). Thakur et al. employed a rapid microwave-assisted method to synthesize CuO nanoparticles followed by co-doping with Ag and Co whi
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