Porous hexapod CuO nanostructures: precursor-mediated fabrication, characterization, and visible-light induced photocatalytic degradation of phenol

• CuO hexapod nanostructures were successfully prepared.
• CuO hexapod nanostructures showed high photocatalytic activity.
• The CuO hexapod catalyst has good stability.

A facile route was developed for the preparation of porous hexapod CuO nanostructures based on a solvothermal route with subsequent calcination. The CuO nanostructures are composed of numerous nanopaticles with high porosity resulting from the thermal decomposition of the Cu2O-CNTs precursors. The obtained CuO hexapod nanostructures were evaluated for their ability for the degradation of phenol under visible-light irradiation. Comparing with commercial CuO and P25, the as-prepared CuO hexapod nanostructures exhibit superior property on the photocatalytic decomposition of phenol. It is believed that the efficient photocatalytic property is originated from their unique 3D porous nanostructures which are highly beneficial to the reagent diffusion and mass transportation.

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