Cuprous oxide nanocubes functionalized with graphene quantum dots and its application for methylene blue degradation

Iranian Journal of Catalysis

مقاله 8، دوره 12، شماره 1، خرداد 2022، صفحه 85-95   

نوع مقاله: Articles

شناسه دیجیتال (DOI): 10.30495/ijc.2022.689550

نویسندگان

Quyen Thi Bich Tran^{* 1}؛ Dang Hai Pham¹؛ My Nguyen Tra Ngo¹؛ Toan Duy Pham²؛ Thien Van Hong Doan¹؛ Thanh Huynh Vu Luong¹

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Technology, Can Tho University, 3/2 Street, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho 900000, Vietnam

²Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Can Tho University, 3/2 Street, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho 900000, Vietnam

چکیده

Cuprous oxide nanocubes (Cu₂O NCBs) were successfully functionalized with graphene quantum dots (GQDs) to form GQDs/Cu₂O NCBs composites material with highly plasmonic property and photocatalytic activity. Herein, GQDs were synthesized by a hydrothermal method at 190°C for 8 h using natural sources of wheat flour and ascorbic acid as precursors and reducing agents, respectively. Cu₂O NCBs were prepared via a simple chemical reduction method at room temperature. GQDs/Cu₂O NCBs composites were fabricated by the simple mixing of the two corresponding component dispersions. Characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), the GQDs/Cu₂O NCBs structures were confirmed. The composites possessed cubic shape of Cu₂O and spherical shape of GQDs with average particle sizes respectively being ~70-80 nm, and ~3-8 nm; and an elemental composition of C (41.53%), O (47.03%), N (0.24%), and Cu (11.20%). Moreover, experiments on the methylene blue (MB) degradation demonstrated that the GQDs/Cu₂O NCBs composites significantly degraded >98% of the total dye amount within 30 min. In summary, the novel composites possessed potential high catalytic activity and could be utilized as photocatalysts in the treatment of organic pollutants and biological waste such as dyes, antibiotics, and pesticides.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs)؛ Cuprous oxide nanocubes (Cu2O NCBs)؛ Photocatalytic activity؛ Wheat flour؛ Methylene blue (MB)

مراجع

[1] Y. Wen, G. Schoups, N. Van De Giesen, Organic pollution of rivers: Combined threats of urbanization, livestock farming and global climate change, Sci. Rep. 7(1) (2017) 1-9.

[2] A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, E. Shahriari, Photocatalytic decolorization of methyl green using Fe (II)-o-phenanthroline as supported onto zeolite Y, J. Indust. Eng. Chem. 20(5) (2014) 2719-2726.

[3] H. Alkallas, A. Ben Gouider Trabelsi, R. Nasser, S. Fernandez, J.M. Song, H. Elhouichet, Promising Cr-Doped ZnO Nanorods for Photocatalytic Degradation Facing Pollution, Appl. Sci. 12(1) (2022) 34.

[4] A. Mallick, P.D. Patil, M.S. Tiwari, P. Kane, D. Khonde, Green and sustainable methods for dye degradation employing photocatalytic materials, Photocatalytic Degradation of Dyes, Elsevier2021, pp. 345-376.

[5] H. Derikvandi, A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, A comprehensive study on enhancement and optimization of photocatalytic activity of ZnS and SnS₂: Response Surface Methodology (RSM), nn heterojunction, supporting and nanoparticles study, J. Photochem. Photobio. A: Chem. 348 (2017) 68-78.

[6] B. Divband, A. Jodaei, M. Khatamian, Enhancement of photocatalytic degradation of 4-nitrophenol by integrating Ag nanoparticles with ZnO/HZSM-5 nanocomposite, Iran. J. Catal. 9(1) (2019) 63-70.

[7] P. Falcaro, R. Ricco, A. Yazdi, I. Imaz, S. Furukawa, D. Maspoch, R. Ameloot, J.D. Evans, C.J. Doonan, Application of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles@MOFs, Coordin. Chem. Rev. 307 (2016) 237-254.

[8] Q. Wang, Y. Zhu, J. Xue, X. Zhao, Z. Guo, C. Wang, General synthesis of porous mixed metal oxide hollow spheres with enhanced supercapacitive properties, ACS Appl. Mater. Inter. 8(27) (2016) 17226-17232.

[9] M.-G. Kim, M.G. Kanatzidis, A. Facchetti, T.J. Marks, Low-temperature fabrication of high-performance metal oxide thin-film electronics via combustion processing, Nature Mater. 10(5) (2011) 382-388.

[10] R. Chen, J. Lu, Z. Wang, Q. Zhou, M. Zheng, Microwave synthesis of Cu/Cu₂O/SnO₂ composite with improved photocatalytic ability using SnCl₄ as a protector, J. Mater. Sci. 53(13) (2018) 9557-9566.

[11] B. Peng, S. Zhang, S. Yang, H. Wang, H. Yu, S. Zhang, F. Peng, Synthesis and characterization of g-C₃N₄/Cu₂O composite catalyst with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation, Mater. Res. Bullet. 56 (2014) 19-24.

[12] T. Aditya, J. Jana, N.K. Singh, A. Pal, T. Pal, Remarkable facet selective reduction of 4-nitrophenol by morphologically tailored (111) faceted Cu₂O nanocatalyst, ACS Omega 2(5) (2017) 1968-1984.

[13] A.K. Sasmal, S. Dutta, T. Pal, A ternary Cu₂O–Cu–CuO nanocomposite: a catalyst with intriguing activity, Dalton Trans. 45(7) (2016) 3139-3150.

[14] H. Derikvandi, M. Vosough, A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, A comprehensive study on the enhanced photocatlytic activity of a double-shell mesoporous plasmonic Cu@Cu₂O/SiO₂ as a visible-light driven nanophotocatalyst, Environ. Sci. Poll. Res. 27 (2020) 27582-27597.

[15] X. Zhao, Y. Li, Y. Guo, Y. Chen, Z. Su, P. Zhang, Coral‐like MoS₂/Cu₂O porous nanohybrid with dual‐electrocatalyst performances, Adv. Mater. Inter. 3(23) (2016) 1600658.

[16] W. Sang, G. Zhang, H. Lan, X. An, H. Liu, The effect of different exposed facets on the photoelectrocatalytic degradation of o-chlorophenol using p-type Cu₂O crystals, Electrochim. Acta 231 (2017) 429-436.

[17] M. Wang, L. Sun, Z. Lin, J. Cai, K. Xie, C. Lin, p–n Heterojunction photoelectrodes composed of Cu₂O-loaded TiO₂ nanotube arrays with enhanced photoelectrochemical and photoelectrocatalytic activities, Energ. Environ. Sci. 6(4) (2013) 1211-1220.

[18] Y.H. Chang, M.Y. Chiang, J.H. Chang, H.N. Lin, Enhanced visible light photocatalysis of cuprous oxide nanoparticle modified zinc oxide nanowires, Mater. Lett. 138 (2015) 85-88.

[19] W.J. Ong, L.L. Tan, Y.H. Ng, S.T. Yong, S.P. Chai, Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄)-based photocatalysts for artificial photosynthesis and environmental remediation: are we a step closer to achieving sustainability?, Chem. Rev. 116(12) (2016) 7159-7329.

[20] C. Ye, J.X. Li, Z.J. Li, X.B. Li, X.B. Fan, L.P. Zhang, B. Chen, C.H. Tung, L.Z. Wu, Enhanced driving force and charge separation efficiency of protonated g-C₃N₄ for photocatalytic O₂ evolution, ACS Catal. 5(11) (2015) 6973-6979.

[21] F. Bonaccorso, Z. Sun, T. Hasan, A. Ferrari, Graphene photonics and optoelectronics, Nature Photon. 4(9) (2010) 611-622.

[22] Z. Wu, Y. Huang, L. Xiao, D. Lin, Y. Yang, H. Wang, Y. Yang, D. Wu, H. Chen, Q. Zhang, Physical properties and structural characterization of starch/polyvinyl alcohol/graphene oxide composite films, Inter. J. Biolog.  Macro. 123 (2019) 569-575.

[23] L. Li, G. Wu, G. Yang, J. Peng, J. Zhao, J.J. Zhu, Focusing on luminescent graphene quantum dots: current status and future perspectives, Nanoscale 5(10) (2013) 4015-4039.

[24] M.H. Facure, R. Schneider, L.A. Mercante, D.S. Correa, A review on graphene quantum dots and their nanocomposites: from laboratory synthesis towards agricultural and environmental applications, Environ. Sci.: Nano 7(12) (2020) 3710-3734.

[25] S. Kumar, A. Dhiman, P. Sudhagar, V. Krishnan, ZnO-graphene quantum dots heterojunctions for natural sunlight-driven photocatalytic environmental remediation, Appl. Surf. Sci. 447 (2018) 802-815.

[26] A. Kalluri, D. Debnath, B. Dharmadhikari, P. Patra, Graphene quantum dots: synthesis and applications, Methods in enzymology 609 (2018) 335-354.

[27] C. Zhao, X. Song, Y. Liu, Y. Fu, L. Ye, N. Wang, F. Wang, L. Li, M. Mohammadniaei, M. Zhang, Synthesis of graphene quantum dots and their applications in drug delivery, J. Nanobiotech. 18(1) (2020) 1-32.

[28] L. Fang, Q. Xu, X. Zheng, W. Zhang, J. Zheng, M. Wu, W. Wu, Soy flour-derived carbon dots: facile preparation, fluorescence enhancement, and sensitive Fe³⁺ detection, J. Nanopart. Res. 18(8) (2016) 1-13.

[29] M. Batool, D. Hussain, A. Akrem, M. Najam-ul-Haq, S. Saeed, S.M. Zaka, M.S. Nawaz, F. Buck, Q. Saeed, Graphene quantum dots as cysteine protease nanocarriers against stored grain insect pests, Sci. Rep. 10(1) (2020) 1-11.

[30] Asar Ahmed, Namdeo S. Gajbhiye, Amish G. Joshi, Low cost, surfactant-less, one pot synthesis of Cu₂O nano-octahedra at room temperature, J. Solid State Chem. 184 (2011) 2209–2214.

[31] W. Chen, D. Li, L. Tian, W. Xiang, T. Wang, W. Hu, Y. Hu, S. Chen, J. Chen, Z. Dai, Synthesis of graphene quantum dots from natural polymer starch for cell imaging, Green Chem. 20(19) (2018) 4438-4442.

[32] C.P. Deming, R. Mercado, V. Gadiraju, S.W. Sweeney, M. Khan, S. Chen, Graphene quantum dots-supported palladium nanoparticles for efficient electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen in alkaline media, ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 3(12) (2015) 3315-3323.

[33] D. Sun, R. Ban, P.H. Zhang, G.H. Wu, J.R. Zhang, J.J. Zhu, Hair fiber as a precursor for synthesizing of sulfur-and nitrogen-co-doped carbon dots with tunable luminescence properties, Carbon 64 (2013) 424-434.

[34] J. Chen, Z. Long, S. Wang, Y. Meng, G. Zhang, S. Nie, Biodegradable blends of graphene quantum dots and thermoplastic starch with solid-state photoluminescent and conductive properties, Inter. J. Biological Macro. 139 (2019) 367-376.

[35] M. Vandana, S. Ashokkumar, H. Vijeth, L. Yesappa, H. Devendrappa, Synthesis and characterization of polypyrrole-graphene quantum dots nanocomposites for supercapacitor application, AIP Conference Proceedings, AIP Publishing LLC, 2019, p. 030535.

[36] W.C.J. Ho, Q. Tay, H. Qi, Z. Huang, J. Li, Z. Chen, Photocatalytic and adsorption performances of faceted cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) particles for the removal of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous media, Molecules 22(4) (2017) 677.

[37] A. Norouzi, A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, R. Fazaeli, A Copper (I) oxide-zinc oxide nano-catalyst hybrid: Brief characterization and study of the kinetic of its photodegradation and photomineralization activities toward methylene blue, Mater. Sci. Semiconduct. Process. 122 (2021) 105495.

[38] M. Kouti, L. Matouri, Fabrication of nanosized cuprous oxide using fehling's solution, Scientia Iranica 17(1) (2010) 73-78.

[39] Y. Guo, M. Dai, Z. Zhu, Y. Chen, H. He, T. Qin, Chitosan modified Cu₂O nanoparticles with high catalytic activity for p-nitrophenol reduction, Appl. Surf. Sci. 480 (2019) 601-610.

[40] Chunhua Cao, Ling Xiao, Preparation and visible-light photocatalytic activity of Cu₂O/PVA/Chitosan composite films, Adv. Mater. Res. 1015 (2014) 623-626.

[41] A. Wang, X. Li, Y. Zhao, W. Wu, J. Chen, H. Meng, Preparation and characterizations of Cu₂O/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites with high photo-catalytic performances, Powder Tech. 261 (2014) 42-48.

[42] M. Karimi-Shamsabadi, A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, Comparative study on the increased photoactivity of coupled and supported manganese-silver oxides onto a natural zeolite nano-particles, J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem. 418 (2016) 103-114.

[43] M. Kasiri, H. Aleboyeh, A. Aleboyeh, Degradation of Acid Blue 74 using Fe-ZSM5 zeolite as a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst, Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 84(1-2) (2008) 9-15.

[44] S. Senobari, A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, A comprehensive study on the photocatalytic activity of coupled copper oxide-cadmium sulfide nanoparticles, Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular Biomolecular Spectroscopy 196 (2018) 334-343.

[45] M.A. Rauf, M.A. Meetani, A. Khaleel, A. Ahmed, Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue using a mixed catalyst and product analysis by LC/MS, Chem. Eng. J. 157(2-3) (2010) 373-378.

[46] F. Huang, L. Chen, H. Wang, Z. Yan, Analysis of the degradation mechanism of methylene blue by atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma, Chem. Eng. J.  162(1) (2010) 250-256.

[47] A. Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, S. Hushmandrad, Solar photodecolorization of methylene blue by CuO/X zeolite as a heterogeneous catalyst, Appl. Catal. A: General 388(1-2) (2010) 149-159.