Engineering a Highly Improved Porous Photocatalyst Based on Cu2O by a Synergistic Effect of Cation Doping of Zn and Carbon Layer Coating

Yusheng Yuan; Li-Ming Sun; Hao Gao; Sha Mo; Tianyi Xu; Lei Yang; Wen-Wen Zhan

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02547

Engineering a Highly Improved Porous Photocatalyst Based on Cu₂O by a Synergistic Effect of Cation Doping of Zn and Carbon Layer Coating

Inorg Chem. 2020 Nov 2;59(21):16010-16015. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02547. Epub 2020 Oct 11.

Authors

Yusheng Yuan¹, Li-Ming Sun¹, Hao Gao¹, Sha Mo¹, Tianyi Xu¹, Lei Yang², Wen-Wen Zhan¹

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Green Synthetic Chemistry for Functional Materials, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, P. R. China.
² Shenzhen HUASUAN Technology Co., Ltd., 4168 Liuxian Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.

PMID: 33040527
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02547

Abstract

Zn-doped cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) nanoparticles coated by carbon layers (Zn/Cu₂O@C) have been obtained via a bimetallic MOF (Zn/Cu-MOF-199) as the sacrificial precursor. Originated from the octahedral morphology of Zn/Cu-MOF-199, the as-synthesized Zn/Cu₂O@C shows a porous octahedron structure. The obtained Zn/Cu₂O@C can afford the following merits. (1) The cation doping of Zn inside Cu₂O can enhance the light absorption by introducing impurity energy levels and facilitate the separation of photoinduced electrons and holes. (2) The coating of a carbon layer in Zn/Cu₂O@C can also efficiently enhance the separation efficiency of photoinduced charge carriers. (3) The porous structure of Zn/Cu₂O@C can provide increased active sites. Therefore, these merits lead to the highly improved photocatalytic activities toward various chemical reactions. In addition, the fully coated carbon layer can facilitate the cycle stability of Zn/Cu₂O@C in the photocatalytic processes.