Synthesis of Cu2O Nanoparticles by Ellipse Curve Micromixer

Micromixers offer the advantage of rapid and homogeneousmixingcompared with conventional macroscale reaction systems, and thus theyshow great potential for the synthesis of nanoparticles. An ellipsecurve serpentine micromixer, which had been proposed in our priorworks was employed to synthesize Cu2O nanoparticles. Cu2O are excellent photocatalysts that have been widely utilizedin the degradation of organic dyes. Owing to the excellent mixingperformance, the reduction of Cu(OH)(2) in micromixing synthesiswas more sufficient than that in conventional stirring synthesis.The Cu2O nanoparticles synthesized by micromixing had smallersize and narrower size distribution compared with those synthesizedby stirring in a beaker. The smallest Cu2O nanoparticleswere obtained by micromixing with Re = 100 at T = 60 & DEG;C, while the most uniform Cu2O nanoparticleswere obtained at T = 80 & DEG;C owing to Ostwaldripening. Through the photocatalytic degradation experiments of RhodamineB, the Cu2O nanoparticles synthesized by micromixing werefound to have better photocatalysis than those synthesized by stirring.The research results showed that the micromixing synthesis was a moresuitable choice to produce Cu2O nanoparticles with excellentphotocatalysis. The ellipse curve micromixer with a simple structureand high mixing performance can be applied in the synthesis of variousnanoparticles.

Automated summary

Micromixers offer rapid and homogeneous mixing, making them an attractive option for synthesizing nanoparticles. The ellipse curve serpentine micromixer was used to successfully synthesize Cu2O nanoparticles, which have excellent photocatalytic properties. The Cu2O nanoparticles synthesized by micromixing had smaller and more uniform size distribution compared to those synthesized by conventional stirring in a beaker. The micromixing synthesis also resulted in Cu2O nanoparticles with better photocatalytic activity.