Cu2O hierarchical nanostructures with different morphologies were successfully synthesized by a solvothermal method using copper (II) nitrate trihydrate (Cu(NO3)2⋅3H2O) and ethylene glycol (EG) as initial reagents. The obtained nanostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area test, and UV-vis spe...

Metal-semiconductor-based photocatalysts show high efficiencies and catalytic activities in the photocatalysis process. Herein, the magnetic and one-dimensional Ni-Cu2O heteronanowires have been fabricated via in situ reduction of pre-adsorbed Cu(2+) on the surface of prickly Ni nanowires in an ethanol solution for photocatalysis application. The resultant Ni-Cu2O heteronanowires show higher ph...

Cu2O is a p-type direct bandgap semiconductor with band gap of 2~2.2 eV, which has excellent visible light absorption and utilization. However, slow charge transfer poor stability hinder its practical application. In this paper, facile electrodeposition approach successfully synthesized the heterostructure p-Cu2O n-Cu2O. The protective layer n-Cu2O on surface nanoparticles forms p/n heterojunct...

Valence band (VB) changes and hence electronic structure evolution was directly observed with low kinetic energy (KE) electrons at near ambient pressure (NAP) conditions with He I photon source in a custom built laboratory ambient pressure photoelectron spectrometer (Lab-APPES). Polycrystalline Cu surfaces were gradually oxidized in O2 to Cu2O, to a mixture of Cu2O + CuO, and finally to CuO bet...

The influence of alloying element S, Se or Te on the oxidation resistance of pure Cu was studied by oxidizing in 0.1 MPa pure oxygen atmosphere at 573-873 K in comparison with a 6N Cu (99.9999 wt.%). The addition of S, Se or Te is found to improve the oxidation resistance of Cu remarkably. This improvement is contributed from the accumulation of alloying element at the Cu2O/Cu interface and seg...

We present a systematic study on the effects of electrodeposition parameters on the photoelectrochemical properties of Cu2O. The influence of deposition variables (temperature, pH, and deposition current density) on conductivity has been widely explored in the past for this semiconductor, but the optimization of the electrodeposition process for the photoelectrochemical response in aqueous solu...

Cu2O-ZnO nanowire solar cells have the advantages of light weight and high stability while possessing a large active material interface for potentially high power conversion efficiencies. In particular, electrochemically fabricated devices have attracted increasing attention due to their low-cost and simple fabrication process. However, most of them are "partially" electrochemically fabricated ...

Metallic porous microtubes were obtained from commercial wires (200–250 μm diameter) of Cu-65Ni-2Fe, Cu-44Ni-1Mn and Cu-23Ni, alloys (wt. %) by surface oxidation at 1173 K in air, removal of the unoxidized core by chemical etching, and reduction in annealing in the hydrogen atmosphere. Transversal sections of the partially oxidized wires show a porous layered structure, with an external shell o...

Cubic, octahedral, and rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O nanocrystals bound by respectively {100}, {111}, and {110} facets were successfully employed to catalyze the [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction for the regioselective synthesis of 3,5-disubstituted isoxazoles. Surfactant-free nanocrystals having the same total surface area were used for the catalysis. Strongly facet-dependent organocatalytic activity...

The electronic transport through Au-(Cu2O)n-Au junctions is investigated using first-principles calculations and the nonequilibrium Green's function method. The effect of varying the thickness (i.e., n) is studied as well as that of point defects and anion substitution. For all Cu2O thicknesses the conductance is more enhanced by bulk-like (in contrast to near-interface) defects, with the excep...