Shear Stress-Mediated Growth of Cupric Phosphate Nanostructures

A facile, expeditious, and green method has been developed to fabricate cupric phosphate nanosheets, nanoflowers, nanoscrolls, and nanopetals using a vortex fluidic device (VFD), which possesses a rapidly rotating quartz tube tilted at ±45°. The changing state and dimensions of the nanostructures can be precisely controlled by varying the rotational speed of the angled quartz tube, processing time, pH, temperature, and the concentration of the divalent copper ion and phosphate ion precursor solutions. Via VFD processing, nanostructures are generated in 10 min and exhibit good stability in the absence of chemical stabilizers. In addition, the as-prepared nanoflowers exhibit enhanced catalytic activity for the Fenton degradation of Rhodamine B due to their hierarchical porous structure. The results obtained highlight the utility of the VFD by demonstrating its ability to control the growth and manipulation of inorganic crystalline materials.