Facile Synthesis of Cu-doped ZnO Nanoparticle in Triethyleneglycol: Photocatalytic Activities and Aquatic Ecotoxicity

Abstract:A new synthetisis method of Cu-doped ZnO nanoparticles is presented in this work, this novel approach allow one to produce Zinc oxide nanocristal owing to a modified Polyol process that makes use of triethyleneglycol (TREG) as a solvent. The structure and morphology of the nanoparticles were characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption study, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The lightly doped Zn1-xCuxO photocatalysts consisted in a novel nanorods structure of Zn0.9990Cu0.0010O nanoparticles. Taking the photocatalytic degradation of diuron under solar light as liquid phase test reaction, the lightly doped Zn0.9990Cu0.0010O nanorods photocatalysts showed strongly enhanced photocatalytic activity when compared to the bare ZnO counterpart. The apparent rate constant value of Zn0.9990Cu0.0010O was 22 times ...