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Title: | Solution chemistry-based nano-structuring of copper dendrites for efficient use in catalysis and superhydrophobic surfaces |
Authors: | Bakthavatsalam, Rangarajan Ghosh, Subrata Biswas, Ratul Kumar Saxena, Aayushi Raja, Alagar THOTIYL, MUSTHAFA OTTAKAM Wadhai, Sandip Banpurkar, Arun G. Kundu, Janardan Dept. of Chemistry |
Keywords: | Solution chemistry Nano-structuring Superhydrophobic surfaces Superhydrophobic surfaces Metallic nanostructures Copper dendrites 2016 |
Issue Date: | Jan-2016 |
Publisher: | Royal Society of Chemistry |
Citation: | RSC Advances, 6(10), 8416-8430. |
Abstract: | Despite their performance and economic advantages over Ag and Au, there have been no focused research efforts on the nano-structuring of Cu dendrites with respect to fine-tuning their structure/morphology towards the efficiency enhancement of suitable applications. Reported here is a simple, versatile, environmentally-friendly and galvanic replacement reaction-based solution chemistry methodology to synthesize highly nano-structured copper dendrites targeted towards the efficiency enhancement of desired applications. Herein, copper is deposited galvanically on an Al foil in the presence of NaCl/HCl, wherein the chloride anions augment an uninterrupted replacement reaction. The growth process of Cu dendrites has been probed in detail. The presence of acid, the type of Cu2+ precursor salt, the Cu2+ ion concentration, the surfactant concentration and the reaction temperature are all demonstrated to provide useful means of modulating the surface structure/morphology of the dendrites. Notably, dendrites formed in the presence of acid are found to be highly nano-structured. Moreover, it is also found that the morphology/structure of the obtained Cu deposit depends considerably upon the choice of the Cu2+ precursor salt, a parameter that has been completely overlooked in the past. The acid-induced nano-structuring of the dendrites is exploited for enhancing their efficiency in the catalytic reduction of para-nitrophenol and for fabricating self-cleaning superhydrophobic surfaces. These nano-structured dendrites are demonstrated to have the highest ever normalized rate constant for the catalytic reduction reaction. Superhydrophobic surfaces fabricated using these dendrites demonstrate excellent self-cleaning abilities, showing a high contact angle (159°) with low contact angle hysteresis (2°). This facile synthetic strategy for the fabrication of highly nano-structured Cu dendrites is expected to open up avenues for the production of Cu-based low-cost functional nano/micro-materials. |
URI: | http://dr.iiserpune.ac.in:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/2742 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA22683J |
ISSN: | 2046-2069 |
Appears in Collections: | JOURNAL ARTICLES |
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