Enhanced catalytic activity without the use of an external light source using microwave-synthesized CuO nanopetals

• Govinda Lakhotiya,
• Sonal Bajaj,
• Arpan Kumar Nayak,
• Debabrata Pradhan,
• Pradip Tekade and
• Abhimanyu Rana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1167–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.118

• , University of Twente, 7500 AE, Enschede, Netherlands 10.3762/bjnano.8.118 Abstract We report enhanced catalytic activity of CuO nanopetals synthesized by microwave-assisted wet chemical synthesis. The catalytic reaction of CuO nanopetals and H2O2 was studied with the application of external light source and

• also under dark conditions for the degradation of the hazardous dye methylene blue. The CuO nanopetals showed significant catalytic activity for the fast degradation of methylene blue and rhodamine B (RhB) under dark conditions, without the application of an external light source. This increased

• conditions is also illustrated. Keywords: CuO nanopetals; dark catalytic activity; fast degradation of dyes; microwave synthesis; Introduction Controlling air quality and water pollutants is a big challenge for environmental research [1]. Particularly, efforts have been taken to control these pollutants