Formation of copper oxide nanotextures on porous calcium carbonate templates for water treatment

Mahmud Diab, Karam Shreteh, Michael Volokh, Taleb Mokari

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The necessity of providing clean water sources increases the demand to develop catalytic systems for water treatment. Good pollutants adsorbers are a key ingredient, and CuO is one of the candidate materials for this task. Among the different approaches for CuO synthesis, precipitation out of aqueous solutions is a leading candidate due to the facile synthesis, high yield, sustainability, and the reported shape control by adjustment of the counter anions. We harness this effect to inves-tigate the formation of copper oxide-based 3D structures. Specifically, the counter anion (chloride, nitrate, and acetate) affects the formation of copper-based hydroxides and the final structure follow-ing their conversion into copper oxide nanostructures over porous templates. The formation of a 3D structure is obtained when copper chloride or nitrate reacts with a Sorites scaffold (marine-based calcium carbonate template) without external hydroxide addition. The transformation into copper oxides occurs after calcination or reduction of the obtained Cu2(OH)3X (X = Cl or NO3) while pre-serving the porous morphology. Finally, the formed Sorites@CuO structure is examined for water treatment to remove heavy metal cations and degrade organic contaminant molecules.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6067
JournalMolecules
Volume26
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - 7 Oct 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • 3D structure
  • Copper oxide
  • Heavy metal
  • Microorganism template
  • Pollutant decontamination
  • Sorites
  • Water purification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Chemistry (miscellaneous)
  • Molecular Medicine
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Drug Discovery
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry

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