Amino Acids for the Sustainable Production of Cu₂O Materials: Effects on Morphology and Photocatalytic Reactivity

Abstract

Photocatalytic technologies represent intriguing approaches for long-term environmental remediation strategies; however, approaches to sustainably generate the catalytic materials remain limited. Many methods require the use of toxic surfactants and potentially harsh conditions. As an alternative, bioinspired approaches present pathways toward the production of functional structures under ambient conditions. In this contribution, the effects of amino acids in the low-temperature production of Cu2O-based materials is examined, providing first principle information for the eventual de novo design of peptides that can control the structure/function relationship of these inorganic materials. These studies demonstrate that only a fraction of the 20 canonical amino acids (Arg, Cys, Glu, His, Lys, and Trp) possess specific control over the morphology and size of Cu2O materials during the synthetic process. This level of control is shown to directly affect the photocatalytic activity of the materials for the degradation of model organic pollutants. Taken together, these results provide intriguing new directions for the rational design of sustainable synthetic approaches for the production of catalytically important semiconductor metal oxide materials applied to long-term environmental remediation capabilities.

Dynamic growth of rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O crystals controlled by reaction temperature and their size-dependent photocatalytic performance

“…1 Various experiments regarding visible-light photodegradation of different categories of organic dyes have been reported. 2 Cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O) 3,4 and its complexes (such as heterostructures [5][6][7][8][9] and plasmonic [10][11][12][13] forms) represent important visible-light photocatalysts, and have been widely applied in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.…”

Well-defined Cu2O photocatalysts for solar fuels and chemicals

“…48 Other noticeable examples in this regard can also be seen in the literature. [49][50][51][52][53][54][55] Aer an in-depth discussion on the development of Cu 2 O polyhedral structures containing three different low-index facet such as {100}, {111} and {110}, it is necessary to understand the formation mechanism of high-index {hkl} facets (where at least one of the h, k, and l is equal to two or above). Surface energies (g) corresponding to different Cu 2 O crystallographic facets usually increase in the order of g {100} < g {111} < g {110} < g {hkl}.…”

A review of the preparation and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of core–shell Cu2O composites

“…13,14 The crystal structure is cubic, and each cell contains six atoms, including two O atoms and four Cu atoms. Cu 2 O has various morphologies, such as cubes, octahedrons, rhombic dodecahedrons, dendrites, nanocages, nanospheres, nanowires, etc.. [15][16][17][18][19][20] It is an excellent semiconductor photocatalytic material with excellent photocatalytic performance and visible light response, low price and abundant resources, and is also a central research issue in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. 21 Cu 2 O has good hydrogen production properties when compounded with other materials, for example, Cu 2 O and n-type TiO 2 form a p-n heterojunction at the interface of Cu 2 O and TiO 2 , which drives charge flow and separation of photogenerated holes from electrons due to differences in the Fermi energy levels.…”