Fabrication of Cu-MOF-Derived Cu/CuxO/C Bifunctional Materials for Light and Dark Catalytic Properties

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are self-assembled constitutive precursors and efficient self-sacrificial templates with metal ions/clusters and organic linkers from which multifunctional materials with carbon nanostructures can be derived. In this study, we synthesized a novel Cu-MOF with Cu(II) as the central metal ion through two ligands, N,N'-bis(pyridin-3-yl)terephthalamide (3-bpta) and fumaric acid (H₂FA), which was used as a template for derivatizing carbon-based nanostructured materials of Cu and Cu_xO through doping with different materials (melamine, urea, and TiO₂) in a simple and efficient one-step pyrolysis. The Cu/Cu_xO-1 catalyst possesses both dark-catalyzed degradation activity and photocatalytic reduction activity during water purification due to the hole-transfer ability between Cu⁺ and Cu²⁺ and its inhibition of electron-hole complexation. In the absence of light, force, and cocatalyst, it can also effectively remove azo dyes in water and effectively reduce Cr(VI) under the action of visible light; therefore, Cu/Cu_xO-1 can be used as a new type of bifunctional material for the removal of pollutants in water, which has a broad prospect.