Fine tuning of the morphology of copper oxide nanostructures and their application in ambient degradation of methylene blue

In this work, flower-like, boat-like, plate-like and ellipsoid-like copper oxide (CuO) nanostructures were fabricated by simple modulation of reaction conditions. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectra were employed to characterize the obtained CuO nanostructures. Reactants, hydrothermal temperature and time were found to largely affect the morphology and structure of CuO nanostructures. Flower-like and boat-like CuO nanostructures were successively fabricated by increasing hydrothermal time. Plate-like and ellipsoid-like CuO nanostructures were produced by modulating the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and NH3·H2O. The formation mechanisms were proposed based on the experimental results, which show that both PEG and NH3·H2O play an important role in the formation of the morphology and structure of CuO. The catalytic activity of the as-prepared CuO nanostructures was demonstrated by catalytic oxidation of methylene blue (MB) in presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The as-prepared CuO nanostructures all show good catalytic activity.