Novel Corn‐Cob‐Like Copper Oxide/Cuprous Oxide Heterostructure for Solar‐Driven Water Treatment
ABSTRACT In this work, a well‐structured corn‐cob‐like heterojunction composed of copper oxide (CuO) and cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O), crosslinked with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and maleic anhydride (MA), was successfully fabricated to achieve efficient interfacial solar‐driven water evaporation and photocatalysis. CuO and Cu 2 O were combined to form a heterojunction, which was then integrated into the corn‐cob‐like copper oxide structure. The hierarchical structure of the composite ensures uniform distribution of the materials, thereby facilitating rapid water transport, effective light absorption, and efficient utilization of solar energy. The CuO/Cu 2 O/polyurethane (PU) composite achieves a high water evaporation efficiency of 6.9 kg m −2 h −1 and a methylene blue (MB) photodegradation efficiencies ( C / C 0 ) of 72% under two‐sun irradiation.
Authors
- Rong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9451-3349)
- Qianting Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4299-005X)
- Yuping Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7128-7481)
- Fengjuan Yang
- Zongli Xie
- Zhengyu Fu
Institutions
- CSIRO Manufacturing (AU)
- Xiamen University of Technology (CN)
- Fujian University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Chemical Engineering & Technology
- Published
- 2026-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ceat.70229
- Primary Topic
- Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Natural Science Foundation of Xiamen City
- Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province
- Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology