Synthesis and Characterization of CuO Rods for Enhanced Visible Light Driven Dye Degradation.

Here, we report simple and efficient method to synthesize CuO rods using copper acetate, hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions via hydrothermal process followed by calcination. The Field emission scanning electron microscopy images revealed that synthesized CuO rods were 2-4μm thick with several micrometers long and grown into high density. The as-synthesized CuO rods were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visible spectroscopy and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) which confirmed the formation of highly crystalline, single phase pure CuO rods with monoclinic structures. The photocatalytic capability of synthesized CuO rods was executed by monitoring the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light illumination. The results showed MB dye degraded about ~70% in just 100 min and followed first order reaction kinetics with rate constant k = 0.01123 mint.1 and R² = 0.9880.