Issue 2, 2015

Synthesis of CuS flowers exhibiting versatile photo-catalyst response

Abstract

Hierarchically structured covellite copper sulfide (CuS) microflowers composed of nanosheets have been successfully fabricated via a one-pot sonochemical process, using copper sulfate and thiourea aqueous solution as precursors in the presence of citric acid, without any prefabricated template. Large-scaled architectures are homogeneous and quite separately displaced and assembled by pure hexagonal single-crystalline CuS nanosheets, having thickness within 20 nm. The as obtained hierarchical CuS structures possess rather high surface area and unique double pore size distributions measured from N2 adsorption isotherms. Moreover, a possible growth mechanism for the CuS hierarchical architectures is proposed on the basis of temporal evolution controlled experiments. Most importantly, these hierarchically structured CuS catalysts showed highly efficient and versatile photo-catalytic activities as well as excellent recyclability in degrading highly concentrated dye aqueous solutions of methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB) and their mixed solution (MB + RhB) with the help of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under natural light irradiation, suggesting a promising application in wastewater purification.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis of CuS flowers exhibiting versatile photo-catalyst response

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Oct 2014
Accepted
02 Dec 2014
First published
04 Dec 2014

New J. Chem., 2015,39, 1459-1468

Author version available

Synthesis of CuS flowers exhibiting versatile photo-catalyst response

M. Tanveer, C. Cao, I. Aslam, Z. Ali, F. Idrees, W. S. Khan, M. Tahir, S. Khalid, G. Nabi and A. Mahmood, New J. Chem., 2015, 39, 1459 DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ01834F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements