J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2021, Vol. 95: 158-166.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2021.04.017

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Green strategy of scaleably synthesizing copper nanocomposites with remarkable catalytic activity for wastewater treatment

Bowen Zhaoa,b,c, Hailong Lia,c, Zhengkun Lia,c, Shaofan Gea,b,c, Xindong Qind, Shiming Zhange, Aimin Wanga,c, Haifeng Zhanga,c, Zhengwang Zhua,c,*()   

  1. aShi-changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
    bSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang 110016, China
    cCAS Key Laboratory of Nuclear Materials and Safety Assessment, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
    dInstitute of Rare and Scattered Elements, College of Chemistry, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
    eQingdao Yunlu Advanced Materials Technology Co., Ltd., Qingdao 266232, China
  • Received:2021-02-19 Revised:2021-03-25 Accepted:2021-04-14 Published:2021-12-30 Online:2021-05-25
  • Contact: Zhengwang Zhu
  • About author:* Shi-changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Mate-rials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. E-mail address: zwzhu@imr.ac.cn (Z. Zhu).

Abstract:

The functional copper nanocomposites (Cu NCs) have received increasing attention in the environmental catalysis application for wastewater treatment due to their superior catalytic activity and reactivity. However, overcoming the pH limitations towards the neutral and alkaline wastewater remains a tricky challenge. In this work, we demonstrate a green strategy to synthesize Cu NCs with coexistence of active Cu, Cu2O and ZrO2 by self-propagating combustion of metallic glassy ribbons, which exhibit the extremely superior catalytic performance for degradation reaction, providing full conversion of organic dyes completely to the environmental friendly small species (efficiency > 99%) under acidic, neutral and alkaline conditions. Compared with all other catalysts developed thus far, the novel Cu NCs catalysts with more active sites present much enhanced catalytic capability of degradation efficiency without the use of any chemical reagents for neutral and alkaline organic dye solutions. The possible decomposition pathways of organic dyes for different pH systems were systematically investigated. More importantly, the two kinds of catalytic mechanism related to high reactivity of nanoscale Cu/Cu2O and strong oxidizing capability of activated •OH /•O2- radicals can also be successfully confirmed under different pH conditions. The green synthetic approach can be extended to design the various M-based nanocomposites (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Ag, Pd) as efficient catalysts for the functional applications of many chemical reactions.

Key words: Copper nanocomposites, Metallic glasses, Self-propagating combustion, Catalytic degradation, Electron transfer, Organic dyes