{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T21:07:31Z","timestamp":1781730451148,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,13]],"date-time":"2018-11-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1542067200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"The National Center of Science (NCN)","award":["2016\/22\/E\/ST4\/00550"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016\/22\/E\/ST4\/00550"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this work, the solar light-induced redox photoactivity of ZnO semiconductor material was used to prepare CuxO-ZnO composite catalysts at room temperature with a control of the chemical state of the copper oxide phase. Cu2(I)O-ZnO and Cu(II)O-ZnO composite catalysts were prepared by using Cu(acac)2 in tetrahydrofuran-water and Cu(NO3)2 in water as metallic precursor, respectively. Prior to the implementation of the photon-assisted synthesis method, the most efficient photoactive ZnO material was selected from among different ZnO materials prepared by the low temperature polyol and precipitation methods with carbonates and carbamates as precipitation agents. The photocatalytic degradation of the 4-chlorophenol compound in water under simulated solar light was taken as a model reaction. The ZnO support materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area and porosimetry measurements, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the synthesis method strongly influenced their photoactivity in terms of 4-chlorophenol degradation and of total organic carbon removal. The most photoactive ZnO material was prepared by precipitation with carbonates and calcined at 300 \u00b0C, benefitting from a high specific surface area and a small mean crystallite size for achieving a complete 4-chlorophenol mineralization within 70 min of reaction, with minimum Zn2+ released to the solution. Besides thermal catalysis applications, this work has opened a new route for the facile synthesis of Cu2O-ZnO heterojunction photocatalysts that could take place under solar light of the heterojunction built between the p-type semi-conductor Cu2O with direct visible light band gap and the ZnO semiconductor phase.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma11112260","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,14]],"date-time":"2018-11-14T02:42:41Z","timestamp":1542163361000},"page":"2260","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Photoactive ZnO Materials for Solar Light-Induced CuxO-ZnO Catalyst Preparation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Magdalena","family":"Brzezi\u0144ska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, 90-924 \u0141\u00f3d\u017a, Poland"},{"name":"Institut de Chimie et Proc\u00e9d\u00e9s pour l\u2019Energie, l\u2019Environnement et la Sant\u00e9, CNRS\/University of Strasbourg, 67087 Strasbourg, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6157-7952","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Patricia","family":"Garc\u00eda-Mu\u00f1oz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut de Chimie et Proc\u00e9d\u00e9s pour l\u2019Energie, l\u2019Environnement et la Sant\u00e9, CNRS\/University of Strasbourg, 67087 Strasbourg, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5704-2461","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agnieszka M.","family":"Ruppert","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of General and Ecological Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, 90-924 \u0141\u00f3d\u017a, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1965-2730","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicolas","family":"Keller","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut de Chimie et Proc\u00e9d\u00e9s pour l\u2019Energie, l\u2019Environnement et la Sant\u00e9, CNRS\/University of Strasbourg, 67087 Strasbourg, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2833","DOI":"10.3390\/ma7042833","article-title":"Zinc oxide from synthesis to application: A review","volume":"7","author":"Jesionowski","year":"2014","journal-title":"Materials"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1703","DOI":"10.1021\/nn900223b","article-title":"Analysis of optical absorbance spectra for the determination of ZnO nanoparticle size distribution, solubility, and surface energy","volume":"3","author":"Segets","year":"2009","journal-title":"ACS Nano"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3441","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physb.2012.04.056","article-title":"Electrical conduction and dielectric studies of ZnO pellets","volume":"407","author":"Chaari","year":"2012","journal-title":"Phys. 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