Sodium alginate-CuS nanostructures synthesised at the gel-liquid interface: an efficient photocatalyst for redox reaction and water remediation Likhi Dhruv, Deepak K. K. Kori, Apurba K. Das Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Khandwa Road, India Gels are an excellent reaction medium for the synthesis of nanomaterials because they represent the transition phase that exists between solids and liquids. In this study, CuS nanostructures are grown at the gel-liquid interface using an environmentally sustainable sodium alginate gel as a reaction media. 1 The morphology of the CuS nanostructures is tailored by controlling the pH of the reaction media. CuS nanoflakes obtained at a pH of 7.4, transformed into nanocubes at 10, and deformed at a pH of 13. Powder X-ray diffractograms show that the CuS nanostructures are organized in a hexagonal crystal system. The +2 and -2 oxidation states of the Cu and S ions, respectively, are verified by the high-resolution XPS spectra. A huge proportion of greenhouse CO 2 gas was physisorbed by the CuS nanoflakes. CuS nanoflakes developed at a pH of 7.4 had a lower bandgap than CuS nanostructures developed at pH 10 and 13, resulting in a faster photocatalytic degradation of 95% crystal violet and 98% methylene blue in aqueous dye solutions, respectively, in 60 and 90 minutes when illuminated with blue light. 2 Additionally, the sodium alginate-CuS nanoflakes exhibit outstanding performance in photo-redox processes to convert ferricyanide into ferrocyanide. 3 References 1. Zouheir, M.; Le, T.-A.; Torop, J.; Nikiforow, K.; Khatib, M.; Zohar, O.; Haick, H.; Huynh, T.-P., CuS-Carrageenan Composite Grown from the Gel/Liquid Interface. ChemSystemsChem 2021, 3 , e2000063. 2. Khanchandani, S.; Kumar, S.; Ganguli, A. K., Comparative Study of TiO2/CuS Core/Shell and Composite Nanostructures for Efficient Visible Light Photocatalysis. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2016, 4 , 1487-1499. 3. Chakraborty, I. N.; Roy, S.; Devatha, G.; Rao, A.; Pillai, P. P., InP/ZnS Quantum Dots as Efficient Visible-Light Photocatalysts for Redox and Carbon–Carbon Coupling Reactions. Chemistry of Materials 2019, 31 , 2258-2262.
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