Effect of growth parameters on photocatalytic properties of CuO nanowires fabricated by direct oxidation

摘要

CuO nanowires were grown on Cu substrate by direct oxidation method. Different growth temperatures from 400 to 600 ℃ were investigated in order to find optimum growth conditions. The results showed that annealing the substrate at 400 ℃ for 4 h in air is suitable for CuO nanowire growth with average diameter of about 50 nm. However, annealing the substrate at 500 ℃ results in dense growth and relatively aligned nanowires. The alignment of nanowires improves by annealing at 600 ℃ but the denseness of nanowires re-duces. The photocatalytic activities of CuO nanowires were studied by photocatalytic degradation of Congo red dye using a homemade photoreactor. The nanowires grown at 500 ℃ revealed the best photocatalytic performance.