Facile synthesis of catalytically active copper oxide from pulsed-spray evaporation CVD

Copper oxide thin films were controllably synthesized by pulsed-spray evaporation chemical vapor deposition (PSE-CVD). The growth kinetics was investigated by considering the pressure effect. X-ray diffraction, in situ emission Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Helium ion microscopy (HIM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy were employed to investigate the physicochemical properties of the deposited thin films. A pure phase CuO was confirmed by the structural investigations. The growth rate exhibited a linear increase when the deposition pressure was lower than 24 mbar, while further increase of the pressure to 50 mbar was observed to have a negligible effect on the growth rate. The optical bandgap energy was estimated to be 1.81 ± 0.05 eV. The catalytic performance of copper oxide was evaluated for the deep oxidation of propene with online FTIR as the monitoring technique. The catalytic tests show that CuO films prepared on flexible substrates such as stainless steel mesh exhibit advantages for the catalytic oxidation of propene.