Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dr.iiserpune.ac.in:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/2742
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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