title: Room-temperature synthesis of three-dimensional porous ZnO@CuNi hybrid magnetic layers with photoluminescent and photocatalytic properties.
abstract: A facile synthetic approach to prepare porous ZnO@CuNi hybrid films is presented. Initially, magnetic CuNi porous layers (consisting of phase separated CuNi alloys) are successfully grown by electrodeposition at different current densities using H2bubbles as a dynamic template to generate the porosity. The porous CuNi alloys serve as parent scaffolds to be subsequently filled with a solution containing ZnO nanoparticles previously synthesized by sol-gel. The dispersed nanoparticles are deposited dropwise onto the CuNi frameworks and the solvent is left to evaporate while the nanoparticles impregnate the interior of the pores, rendering ZnO-coated CuNi 3D porous structures. No thermal annealing is required to obtain the porous films. The synthesized hybrid porous layers exhibit an interesting combination of tunable ferromagnetic and photoluminescent properties. In addition, the aqueous photocatalytic activity of the composite is studied under UV-visible light irradiation for the degradation of Rhodamine B. The proposed method represents a fast and inexpensive approach towards the implementation of devices based on metal-semiconductor porous systems, avoiding the use of post-synthesis heat treatment steps which could cause deleterious oxidation of the metallic counterpart, as well as collapse of the porous structure and loss of the ferromagnetic properties.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , E-08193 Bellaterra , Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guerrero
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , E-08193 Bellaterra , Spain.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Surfaces Division, IK4-CIDETEC , Paseo Miramón, 196, E-20009 San Sebastián , Spain.
authors.forename: Ainhoa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Altube
authors.affiliation: Surfaces Division, IK4-CIDETEC , Paseo Miramón, 196, E-20009 San Sebastián , Spain.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: García-Lecina
authors.affiliation: Servei de Microscòpia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , E-08193 Bellaterra , Spain.
authors.forename: Mònica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roldan
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , E-08193 Bellaterra , Spain.
authors.forename: Maria Dolors
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Baró
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , E-08193 Bellaterra , Spain.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pellicer
authors.affiliation: Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , E-08193 Bellaterra , Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sort
keywords: 100 Materials; 102 Porous / Nanoporous / Nanostructured materials; 103 Composites; 200 Applications; 203 Magnetics / Spintronics / Superconductors; 205 Catalyst / Photocatalyst / Photosynthesis; 40 Optical, magnetic and electronic device materials; CuNi alloy; Porous nanocomposite; ZnO nanoparticles; ferromagnetism; photoluminescence