Ultrasound-assisted preparation, characterization and properties of porous Cu2O microcubes

Abstract

Porous Cu₂O microcubes have been successfully synthesized via an in situ ultrasound route at an ultrasound power of 90% for 3 h in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), employing CuCl₂·2H₂O, C₆H₁₂O₆·H₂O, trisodium citrate and NaOH as starting reactants. The phase and morphology of the product were characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The investigations showed that the as-prepared porous Cu₂O microcubes possessed good electrochemical properties and could photocatalytically degrade organic dye pyronine B under irradiation with 254 nm UV light, and could obviously restrain the propagation of E. coli.