Facile fabrication of CuO spindles for photocatalytic applications

CuO nanostructures with spindle-type morphology were prepared by using a simple wet chemical route. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), STEM-HAADF, elemental mapping, EDX, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET, UV–Vis and PL spectroscopy were used to inspect the morphological, optical and structural properties of the obtained CuO spindles. TEM images clearly revealed the presence of CuO spindles with bimodal size distribution. XRD and Raman studies demonstrated pure monoclinic CuO structure of CuO spindles, while BET analysis revealed high surface area of 41.6 m2/g. PL spectrum of prepared spindle-type CuO nanostructures shows four peaks centered at 411, 437, 484 and 557 nm. The prepared CuO spindles demonstrated strong performance as solar-active photocatalysts for elimination of methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) from wastewater. Formation process of CuO spindles is proposed and mechanism for the degradation of dyes is systematically investigated.