ORIGINAL PAPER

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The Composite of CuO/Diatomaceous Shale Prepared by

Hydrothermal Method and Their Photocatalytic Properties
Ziyi Wang, Binhua Cao, Zhijun Wang, Qiao Chen, and Yongqian Wang*

having a narrow bandgap of 1.2–1.9 eV[3,4]

Photocatalytic degradation is a new wastewater treatment technology, in and exhibiting a wide range of potential
which copper oxide (CuO) is a common photocatalyst. Herein, diatomaceous applications, for example, electronics,[5]
shale is used to load nanoscale CuO, which can, on the one hand, improve gas sensors,[6] heterogeneous catalysis,[7]
the photocatalytic performance, and on the other hand, reduce the cost of field emission emitters,[8] solar cells,[9]
and magnetic storage media.[10] These
catalyst preparation. Furthermore, the morphology, crystal structures, and CuO nanocrystals have been attracting
optical properties of the composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale are studied by much attention not only for funda-
scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV–vis spectrophotometer, mental scientific research, but also for
energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. various practical applications such as
Through the study of different experimental conditions, the reusability test sewage purification,[11,12] on account
of their unique physical and chemical
demonstrates that the morphology and distribution status of
properties.[13] It shows good photocat-
CuO nanostructures are controllable. In addition, a group of composite alytic properties compared with block
catalysts prepared under the best technological conditions is selected to copper oxide, but its narrow band gap
conduct the actual sewage degradation experiment, and the results show that limits its application. In order to increase
the prepared composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale has a good degradation the spectral range of available excitation
effect on sewage. These findings provide an insight into the design and light, anion-doping,[14–20] semiconductor
composite,[21–23] surface photosensiti-
synthesis of new CuO-based composites to effectively improve their vity,[24] noble metal deposition,[25] catalyst
photocatalytic performance. carrier curing,[26–30] and other modifi-
cation methods are often exploited to
enhance photocatalytic performance of
CuO nanostructure. CuO-based multiphase composite photocat-
1. Introduction alyst can completely degrade the organic compounds in polluted
In recent years, society has witnessed a fast deterioration of en- air and sewage at room temperature, thus choosing the right car-
vironment due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization. rier becomes the key to preparing the composite catalyst. Pure
As people are trying to work out effective means to bring it un- CuO is prone to reunion and the surface treatment process is
der control, using environmental protection measures to degrade complex, hence it is difficult to be recycled. Therefore, the porous
pollutants has become hot in academic research.[1,2] As one of material diatomaceous shale has attracted a lot of attention due
the most popular transition metal oxides used as a photocata- to its potential for catalyst carrier.
lyst, copper oxide (CuO) is an important p-type semiconductor, Diatomite is a kind of non-metallic mineral resources. It has
been widely used in the production of insulation materials, abra-
Dr. Z. Wang, Dr. Q. Chen, Dr. Y. Wang sive materials, filter aids, fillers, decolorizers, and catalyst car-
Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of riers because of its promising physical properties like poros-
Education ity, wear resistance, acid resistance, good stability, and strong
Faculty of Material Science and Chemistry adsorption[31–33] . The specific surface area of diatomaceous shale
China University of Geosciences
is four times that of diatomite, and the adsorption volume is five
388# Lumo Road, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China
E-mail: cugwyq@126.com; wyq@cug.edu.cn times that of diatomite.[34–36] The main components of diatoma-
Dr. B. Cao, Dr. Z. Wang ceous shale are silica and the crystalline composition is opal with
Yantai Coastal Geological Survey Center a small amount of clay. It belongs to the high silicon low alu-
China Geological Survey minum amorphous structure whose crystallizing degree is not
287# Jichang Road, Yantai 264004, P. R. China high. Loading CuO on the diatomaceous shale can disperse the
Dr. Y. Wang structure to prevent its reunion and increase the contact area so
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution
Control as to enhance its photocatalytic activity.[37,38]
1088# Xueyuan Road, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China To this aim, we choose Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O as raw material
and synthesized fusiform CuO nanoneedles on diatomaceous
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article shale through a hydrothermal process. Based on the results,
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/crat.201900166
the proportion of surfactant can significantly enhance the light
DOI: 10.1002/crat.201900166

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Figure 1. XRD spectra of composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale and di-
atomaceous shale.
absorption capacity of composite photocatalyst. The sewage with
organic pollutants collected from local river was effectively de-
graded by adding the composite catalyst of CuO/diatomaceous
shale we prepared.[39–41] Our results will shed light on the semi-
conductor preparation via a simple and cost-effective way for their
application in future photocatalysis.
2. Results and Discussion
2.1. Phase Analysis
X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies are carried out to study the crys-
tallographic properties of samples. The XRD patterns of di-
atomaceous shale and composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale are
shown in Figure 1. It can be seen clearly from Figure 1 that the
diatomaceous shale mainly contains cristobalite and 𝛼-quartz.
Except for the peaks of diatomaceous shale, all of others were
indexed and specified as monoclinic CuO (JCPDS No. 05-0661)
with lattice constants a = 4.684 Å, b = 3.425 Å, c = 5.129 Å, and
𝛽 = 99.47°. And as Figure 1 shows, the major peak of CuO lo-
cated at 2𝜃 = 35.6° and 38,7° is indexed as (0 0 2) and (1 1 1)
crystal plane. The diffraction peak is significantly wide because
the grain size reaches the nanoscale. No peaks of other impuri-
ties were detected in this chart, revealing the high purity of the
samples.
2.2. Chemical Composition
The chemical composition of the composite of CuO/
diatomaceous shale was characterized using EDS element
mapping. Figure 2a,b describes the SEM graphic of composite
of CuO/diatomaceous shale micro area and the corresponding
EDS spectrum. From the spectrum and element composition
table, we could conclude that the sample was mainly composed
of O, Si, and Cu elements, the corresponding relative atomic
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ratios were 69.87%, 25.11%, and 2.52%, respectively, which
demonstrated that samples mainly contains SiO2 and CuO. It
could be clearly observed that CuO were uniformly distributed
over the surfaces of the diatomaceous shale. On the basis of
the EDS result, it confirmed the successful loading of CuO on
diatomaceous shale.
2.2.1. Influence of the Ratio of Diatomaceous Shale
The surface and section morphologies of samples were analyzed
by FESEM and the results are shown in Figure 3. As can be seen
from Figure 3a1 ,a2 , the CuO prepared under the condition that
the ratio of diatomaceous shale was 1 g/75 mL with irregular
morphology. However, when the ratio of diatomaceous shale in-
creased to 5 g/75 mL and 10 g/75 mL, CuO formed a fusiform
nanoneedles with narrow ends and wide middle as shown in Fig-
ure 3b1 ,b2 ,c1 ,c2 , which indicated that the composite photocata-
lyst consists of the irregular nanoneedles with about 30–50 nm
in width and 200–400 nm in length. The samples of 5 g/75 mL
have more uniform distribution and smaller size. But when the
ratio reached 15 g/75 mL, none of the CuO nanostructures came
out. With the increase of the amount of diatomaceous shale, the
supersaturation of the solution system, the crystallization driving
force, and the crystallization efficiency in the solution decreased.
Meanwhile, excessive diatom shale would cause insufficient crys-
tallization space. The results illustrated that the appropriate ratio
of diatomaceous shale can conduce to the growth of CuO and the
optimized loading ratio is 5 g/75 mL (Figure 3d1 ,d2 ).
Figure 4a shows the UV–vis absorption spectrum of differ-
ent ratios of diatomaceous shale samples. In general, the light
absorption capacity was mainly distributed in the ultraviolet re-
gion. When the wavelength was less than 300 nm, absorptiv-
ity of the samples was relatively high and decreased steadily as
the wavelength was from 300 to 500 nm and then maintained a
steady trend until 800 nm. In addition, the absorption rate of the
1 g/75 mL sample was distinctly higher than the other samples.
The optical band gap was determined by using the Tauc’s rela-
tion, as shown in Equation (1).
n
(𝛼h𝜈 ) 2 = h𝜈 − Eg (1)
where Eg is the band gap energy, n is a constant, 𝜈 is the frequency
of the incident radiation, h is Planck’s constant, 𝛼 is the absorp-
tion coefficient, r is determined by the type of optical transition of
a semiconductor. In this equation, the value of n depends on the
properties of the semiconductor compound, where n is 1 when
the material is gap semiconductor. From Figure 4b, we can obvi-
ously see that the measured optical band gap Eg values were 3.46,
3.27, 3.38, and 3.32 eV, respectively, with the decreasing ratio of
diatomaceous shale and the 1 g/75 mL sample had the widest
band width. Combined with FESEM analysis, we can conclude
that the best condition is 5 g/75 mL.
The photoluminescence spectrum is a powerful tool for re-
searching the optical properties of semiconductor metal oxides.
Figure 5 demonstrates the PL spectrum of the samples prepared
under different ratios of diatomaceous shale, which has a strong
emission at 345 and 465 nm. By PL results, due to the heterojunc-
tion effect and better charge carriers’ separation as confirmed, the
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Figure 2. a) The SEM image and b) the corresponding EDS spectrum of the composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale. The corresponding elemental
distributions of c) Cu and d) other elements.
lesser ratio showed a lower PL peak but it has better optical per-
formance. The height of the peak increased with the ratio rises
but there is fluorescence quenching when the ratio is 15 g/75 mL.
The results were consistent with the UV–vis. Compared with the
characteristic emission peaks of CuO, the two main characteris-
tic peaks(345, 465 nm) identified in the figure shows obvious red
shift, which was possibly attributed to the quantum confinement
of the CuO nanostructures.
2.2.2. Influence of Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O Solution Concentration
The general morphologies of the composite of CuO/
diatomaceous shales prepared by hydrothermal method at
different Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentrations were
analyzed by FESEM and the results are shown in Figure
6a1 ,a2 ,b1 ,b2 which reveal the density of CuO showing a mono-
tonic growth trend with the increase of the Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O
concentration. As the Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O concentration in-
creased, the morphology of the composite of CuO/diatomaceous
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shale significantly changed, too. When the concentration
of OH− was too low, there were not enough Cu(OH)2 par-
ticles to engender oriented attachment. As shown in Fig-
ure 6a1 ,a2 , CuO nanostructures gathered together to form
micron spheres. On closer inspection, the surface of the micron
sphere was not smooth and it is composed of fusiform CuO
structure. However, when the Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution
increased to higher concentration,such aggregation cannot be
observed and the spherical structure collapse to single fusiform
CuO.
Figure 7a shows the UV–vis absorption spectrum of samples
with different Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentrations. The
changing trend of absorptivity is basically the same as that of
the previous samples. It is clearly indicated that the composite
of CuO/diatomaceous shale had strong absorption of ultraviolet
light in the 220–400 nm range and had the strongest absorption
peak located at 250 nm; however, its absorption intensity in the
visible light region of 400–800 nm was relatively weak, which
was basically consistent with the reports of others. The result
indicated that with Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentration
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Figure 3. The FESEM images of different ratios of diatomaceous shale at low and high magnifications: a1,a2) 5 g/75 mL, b1,b2) 5 g/75 mL, c1,c2)
10 g/75 mL, d1,d2) 15 g/75 mL.

increasing, the optical properties of composite photocatalyst did
not change obviously, which means the solution concentration
had little influence to the final products after achieving chemical
reaction equilibrium. Figure 7b shows the band gap of samples
prepared under different Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concen-
trations and the measured optical band gap Eg values were 2.68,
2.71, 2.87, and 2.98 eV. We can conclude that with the increase of
Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentration, the sample of 0.4 m
had the maximum band gap. Therefore, we can hold the view
that the best condition is when the Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution
concentration is 0.4 m.
2.2.3. Influence of the Ratio of Surfactant
In order to investigate the morphologies of diatomaceous shale
and CuO nanostructure anchored on the surface of diatoma-
ceous shale, FESEM observation was carried out. Figure 8 shows

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Figure 4. a) UV–vis absorption spectrum of samples prepared under different ratios of diatomaceous shale. b) The chart of forbidden band width
calculation.
Figure 5. Fluorescence spectrum of samples prepared under different ra-
tios of diatomaceous shale.
FESEM images of samples prepared by different ratios of sur-
factant. Compared with other samples without surfactant, the
amount of CuO attached to the diatomaceous shale increased sig-
nificantly. We can obviously see that CuO nanostructure attach-
ment in the surface and pore of diatomaceous shale. The CuO
nanostructures in the different samples were approximately the
same fusiform crystal form, but the distribution density was dif-
ferent. In the four samples, when the ratio of surfactant reached
0.5 g/75 mL, the CuO nanostructures had a high assembly den-
sity (Figure 8b1 ,b2 ). The addition of polar surfactant SBDS is
beneficial to the adsorption of nano-CuO by diatomaceous shale,
thus leading the surface of the catalyst chemical groups be-
come rich, thereby improving the catalytic activity and reduce
aggregation.
Figure 9a,b shows the UV–vis absorption spectrum and the
forbidden band width calculation of samples with different ra-
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tios of surfactant. The results illustrated that the composite of
CuO/diatomaceous shale had strong absorption of ultraviolet
light in the 220–300 nm range and the absorbance was greater
than 1.2. Obviously, the light absorbance of the samples with
surfactant was significantly higher than that without surfactant.
When the ratio of surfactant was 0.5 g/75 mL, the absorptivity of
the samples was the biggest because the CuO nanostructure had
the highest density at such condition. It can also be seen from
Figure 9b that the sample mentioned above have the maximum
forbidden band width. The measured band gaps were 3.13, 3.15,
3.26, and 3.37 eV, respectively. From the experimental results, we
could recognize that the CuO nanostructures were the best when
the ratio of surfactant was 0.5 g/75 mL.
2.3. Discussion on Growth Mechanism
Based on our XRD results, the evolution process of nanowires
can be illustrated as follows:
Cu → Cu2+ + 2e− (2)
Cu2+ + 2OH− → Cu(OH)2 (3)
Cu(OH)2 → CuO + H2 O (4)
In order to understand the growth mechanism of the com-
posite photocatalysts exactly, it is necessary to trace the evo-
lution process. The preparation process of the composite of
CuO/diatomaceous shale was described in Scheme 1. Exten-
sive FESEM observations were performed on these samples and
part of the results is shown in Figure 6, in which the influ-
ence of Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentration on CuO is
described. Initially, the OH− ions are tardily added into the ho-
mogeneous solution with the abundant free Cu2+ ions. The con-
centration as remarkable effects on the nucleation and growth
behavior of the nanocrystals, which includes the number of
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Figure 6. The FESEM images of samples prepared by different Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentrations at low and high magnifications: a1,a2)
0.1 m, b1,b2) 0.2 m, c1,c2) 0.3 m, d1,d2) 0.4 m.

nuclei. Then, Cu(OH)2 is combined with a loss of one water
molecule in the dehydration process in the conditions of the ap-
propriate hydrothermal temperature. More and more precursor
nanoparticles nucleated and grew to form fusiform nanoneedles
caused by the attachment and oriented aggregation of the ongo-
ing new crystals. Generally, this kind of anisotropic crystal growth
starting from nanoparticles is a result of oriented attachment
mechanisms.
Beyond that, concentration has an important effect on the fi-
nal morphology of CuO which is proved by Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O
solution concentration dependent experiments. At a low solu-
tion concentration of 0.1 m, in order to minimize the surface
energy and the energy of the whole system of the samples,
fusiform nanoneedles spontaneously assembled into micron
spheres. With a further increase of solution concentration to 0.2,
0.3, and 0.4 m, the high temperature and high pressure under

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Figure 7. a) UV–vis absorption spectrum of samples prepared under different Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentrations. b) The chart of forbidden
band width calculation.
the solution route disturbed the balance of the solution and then
some microspheres were broken, thus forming the single nanos-
tructure.
2.4. Photocatalytic Activity Study
Degradation of sewage was used to evaluate the photocatalytic
of the composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale. The polluted wa-
ter was taken from East Lake in Wuhan, China. The main or-
ganic pollutants include pesticides, herbicides, hydrocarbons,
which are derived from agriculture, industry, landfill, and urban
runoff.[42,43] CuO has the property of exciting electrons from the
valence band of semiconductor to the conduction band, which
can induce an electron-hole pair formation, consequently pro-
ducing hydroxyl radicals and degrade the organic pollutants. In
addition, diatomaceous shale has good adsorption property so
that can remove the fine particles and suspended solids from
sewage.
Scheme 2 shows the photocatalytic process and electron-
hole pair separation mechanism of the composite of
CuO/diatomaceous shale. Using nano-CuO as photocatalyst, the
reaction process of heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation of
pollutants sewage mainly includes the following steps:
Cu + h𝜈 → h+ (VB) + e− (CB)
e− + O2 → ∙ O−2
+ − ∙ by different samples, reflecting the relationship between the UV–
h + OH → OH
h+ + H2 O → ∙ OH + H+
First under the irradiation of light, CuO is excited by photons
whose energy is greater than or equal to the band gap width, and
produces photogenerated electrons (e− ) and holes (h+ ) with cer-
tain energy, Then, the transfer or deactivation of photogenerated
electrons (e− ) and holes (h+ ) in CuO particles and between the
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interfaces will generate. During the photocatalytic process, pho-
togenerated electrons (e− ) and holes (h+ ) arrive at the surface of
CuO particles and interact with the substances adsorbed on the
surface or in the solvent, then, that is, oxidation–reduction reac-
tion occurs, resulting in some highly oxidizing free groups (· OH,
O2− ) and substances with certain oxidation energy. The above-
mentioned free groups and oxidizing substances with strong ox-
idation fully react with the degraded pollutants to oxidize them
into CO2 and H2 O.
In this experiment, CuO with preparation condition of 75 mL
Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution, 5 g diatomaceous shale addition,
0.5 g surfactant, and 0.4 m Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution con-
centration was selected for photodegradation. The experiments
were performed in a 100 mL container with 0.02 g adsor-
bents. We chose actual sewage from local lake as pollutant and
the photodegradation rate of the composite photocatalyst was
used as the standard to measure its photocatalytic performance.
High pressure mercury lamp (160 W) was selected as the light
source in the experiment and it was placed 10 cm above the
samples. The samples were covered with tin paper and stirred
magnetically 30 min to achieve dynamic dark adsorption bal-
ance to ensure adsorption equilibrium. We remove 1 mL so-
lution per 30 min and the absorbance was tested by a UV–vis
spectrophotometer.[44–46]
The photocatalytic degradation of pure CuO, pure diatoma-
(5) ceous shale, composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale or without
photocatalyst were analyzed. Figure 10a displays the histogram
(6) of UV–vis absorption intensity values (400 nm) of sewage treated
(7)
vis absorption intensity of the samples with time. Apparently, the
(8) degradation efficiency of sewage without photocatalyst was neg-
ligible. The overall trend is that the photodegradation effect in-
creases gradually with the pass of time.
Figure 10b shows UV–vis absorption spectra of local sewage
measured as a function of the catalytic reaction time with
composite photocatalysts. Significant enhancement of photo-
catalytic activity could be obtained by adding composite of
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Figure 8. The FESEM images of samples prepared by different ratios of surfactant at low and high magnifications: a1,a2) 0.25 g/75 mL, b1,b2)
0.5 g/75 mL, c1,c2) 0.75 g/75 mL, d1,d2) 1 g/75 mL.

CuO/diatomaceous shale, which indicated that photocatalyst 3. Conclusions

could be effectively applied to sewage degradation. Meanwhile,
the combination of CuO and diatomaceous shale is beneficial to
increase the volume of catalyst, thus reducing agglomeration and
facilitating recovery. This result demonstrates that this composite
photocatalyst is a very promising alternative for the degradation
of sewage. In the later stage, the efficiency of composite photocat-
alyst may be improved by increasing the ratio of CuO or adding
diatomaceous shale pretreatment.
In summary, we successfully constructed composite of
CuO/diatomaceous shale via a hydrothermal method and
emphatically analyzed the influence of varied conditions on the
growth of crystals. On the basis of characterization results, we
systematically analyzed the effect of the ratio of diatomaceous
shale, Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentration and the
ratio of surfactant. The optimum ratio of diatomaceous shale,

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Figure 9. a) UV–vis absorption spectrum of samples prepared under different ratios of surfactant. b) The chart of forbidden band width calculation.

Scheme 1. Schematic illustration of the formation about composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale.

Scheme 2. Adsorption and electron-hole pair separation mechanism in composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale under UV light radiation.

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Figure 10. a) Histogram of UV absorption intensity values of treated sewage. b) Photocatalytic activities of different samples as photocatalysts for the
degradation of sewage.
Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution concentration, and the ratio of
surfactant are 5 g/75 mL, 0.4 m, 0.5 g/75 mL, respectively. By
adjusting the experimental conditions, the controlled prepara-
tion of the surface load of the diatomaceous shale is realized and
the controllability of the CuO nanostructure is achieved so as to
control the activity of the composite photocatalyst. The photocat-
alytic degradation experiment results showed that the composite
of CuO/diatomaceous shale exhibited higher photocatalytic
activity for the degradation of actual polluted water. It further
shows that the catalyst is helpful for environmental pollution
control and prospective research of semiconductor preparation.
4. Experimental Section
Materials: All reagents in this experiment were of analytical grade and
used without further purification. Deionized water was used for the prepa-
ration for all solution. Copper acetate (Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O), sodium do-
decyl benzene sulfonate (C18 H29 NaO3 S), and anhydrous ethanol was pro-
duced by Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd (Beijing, China).
Experimental Procedure: The composite of CuO/diatomaceous shale
was prepared by a hydrothermal method. Diatomaceous shale was heated
to 900 °C for 1 h in a muffle furnace. Then moderate treated diatomaceous
shale and Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution were mixed in a beaker and stirred
evenly. The solution was then transferred to the reaction kettle and reacted
in the 110 °C thermostatic air blowing oven for 1 h. Afterward, the samples
were centrifuged and washed alternately with deionized water and ethanol
three times each. The resulting precipitation was placed in drying cabinet
at 60 °C for 12 h.
When the influence of the ratio of diatomaceous shale was analyzed,
the amount of diatomaceous shale was set as 1, 5, 10, and 15 g, respec-
tively. The Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O concentration was 0.4 m and the solution
quantity was 75 mL. And the Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O concentration was set
as 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 m when the influence of Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solu-
tion concentration was investigated. The amount of diatomaceous shale
was 5 g and the Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O solution quantity was 75 mL. When
it came to the influence of the ratio of surfactant, the amount of surfactant
was set as 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.1 g, respectively. The amount of diatomaceous
shale was 5 g. The Cu(CH3 COO)2 ·H2 O concentration was 0.4 m and the
solution quantity was 75 mL.
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Characterization: X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed on
an X-ray diffractometer (Bruker D8 ADVANCE, German) with a Cu K𝛼 ra-
diation source (𝜆 = 0.154 nm) operated under a generating voltage of
40 kV and a current of 40 mA. The morphology of samples was charac-
terized by a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, Hitachi
SU8010). Photoluminescence (PL) was measured at room temperature to
study the optical properties of the composite by using an F-4500 FL spec-
trophotometer equipped with Xe lamp (excitation wavelength = 283 nm).
Absorbance of samples were characterized by UV–vis spectrophotometer
(Shimadzu UV-2600). The absorption spectrum of the samples were mea-
sured in the wavelength range from 220 to 800 nm.
The photocatalytic activity of diatomaceous shale composite photocat-
alyst was evaluated via photo degradation of local sewage under the irradi-
ation of high-pressure mercury lamp. Catalytic activity of the catalysts was
measured by UV–vis spectrophotometer.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the open project of Hubei Key Laboratory
of Forensic Science (No. 2018KF001), Guangdong Provincial Key Labora-
tory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control (No. 2017B030301012),
Hubei key Laboratory of Forensic Science (Hubei University of Police
(2018KFKT05), and The Science and Technology Project of Hubei Provin-
cial Department of Education (B2019207). The financial support is grate-
fully appreciated.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
CuO, diatomaceous shale, hydrothermal method, photocatalysts
Received: August 23, 2019
Revised: November 14, 2019
Published online: December 3, 2019
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