The exceptional adsorption ability and gas-detection sensitivity of Cu2O with tunable morphologies

Abstract

The systematic and delicate geometry control of Cu₂O nanostructures with different size can be achieved by simply tuning the dropping speed of NH₂OH HCl, the volume of solvent and the concentration of NaOH. All the Cu₂O nanocrystals exhibit better adsorption ability than granular active carbon on MO (methyl orange), and the hollow sphere Cu₂O shows the best adsorption performance, MO with a concentration of 15 mg L⁻¹ is completely absorbed by the hollow sphere Cu₂O in 5 min. The gas detection sensitivity is also investigated and the hollow sphere structures exhibit the best gas-sensing response, and more importantly, at low temperature and even ppb level it also exhibits a remarkably high response, fast response, recovery time and good stability.