The Effect of the Reducing Sugars in the Synthesis of Visible-Light-Active Copper(I) Oxide Photocatalyst
Szilvia Fodor,
Lucian Baia,
Kornélia Baán,
Gábor Kovács,
Zsolt Pap,
Klara Hernadi
Affiliations
Szilvia Fodor
Department of Applied and Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich tér 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Lucian Baia
Nanostructured Materials and Bio-Nano-Interfaces Centre, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Bio-Nano-Sciences, Treboniu Laurian 42, 400271 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Kornélia Baán
Department of Applied and Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich tér 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Gábor Kovács
Nanostructured Materials and Bio-Nano-Interfaces Centre, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Bio-Nano-Sciences, Treboniu Laurian 42, 400271 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Zsolt Pap
Department of Applied and Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich tér 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Klara Hernadi
Department of Applied and Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged, Rerrich tér 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
In the present work, shape tailored Cu2O microparticles were synthesized by changing the nature of the reducing agent and studied subsequently. d-(+)-glucose, d-(+)-fructose, d-(+)xylose, d-(+)-galactose, and d-(+)-arabinose were chosen as reducing agents due to their different reducing abilities. The morpho-structural characteristics were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), while their photocatalytic activity was evaluated by methyl orange degradation under visible light (120 min). The results show that the number of carbon atoms in the sugars affect the morphology and particle size (from 250 nm to 1.2 µm), and differences in their degree of crystallinity and photocatalytic activity were also found. The highest activity was observed when glucose was used as the reducing agent.
