Fabrication of hierarchically mesoporous CuO nanostructures and their role as heterogenous catalysts and sensors

Abstract

Tween-80 templated mesoporous CuO (mpCuO) nanostructures were explored via a facile, environmentally friendly and scalable sol–gel route for heterogeneous catalysis and sensor technology. Silica nanoparticles (Si-NPs) were used as structural directing agents (SDAs) for the shape selective morphological changes of porous materials which resulted in the fabrication of nanoflowers of CuO/Si-NPs along with a great change in surface area. The mpCuO nanostructures were well characterized by FTIR, TGA, PXRD, FESEM-EDX, TEM, BET techniques. Interestingly, the as-synthesized mpCuO nanostructures showed excellent catalytic activity against the direct hydrogenation of acetone to isopropanol in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄). In addition, mpCuO nanostructures have proved to be excellent sensor materials for simultaneous detection of some metals and biomolecules.