Formation of Copper Oxide Nanotextures on Porous Calcium Carbonate Templates for Water Treatment

The necessity of providing clean water sources increases the demand to develop catalytic systems for water treatment. Good pollutants adsorbers are a key ingredient, and CuO is one of the candidate materials for this task. Among the different approaches for CuO synthesis, precipitation out of aqueous solutions is a leading candidate due to the facile synthesis, high yield, sustainability, and the reported shape control by adjustment of the counter anions. We harness this effect to investigate the formation of copper oxide-based 3D structures. Specifically, the counter anion (chloride, nitrate, and acetate) affects the formation of copper-based hydroxides and the final structure following their conversion into copper oxide nanostructures over porous templates. The formation of a 3D structure is obtained when copper chloride or nitrate reacts with a Sorites scaffold (marine-based calcium carbonate template) without external hydroxide addition. The transformation into copper oxides occurs after calcination or reduction of the obtained Cu₂(OH)₃X (X = Cl⁻ or NO₃⁻) while preserving the porous morphology. Finally, the formed Sorites@CuO structure is examined for water treatment to remove heavy metal cations and degrade organic contaminant molecules.