Photo-Activated Direct Catalytic Oxidation of Gaseous Benzene with a Cu-Connected Serial Heterojunction Array of Co₃O₄/Cu_xO/Foam Cu Assembled via Layer upon Layer Oxidation

The foam copper (FCu) has been first used as a promising supporting material to prepare a photo-activated catalyst of Co3O4/CuxO/FCu, in which the fine Co3O4 particles are inlayed on the CuxO nanowires to form a Z-type heterojunction array connected by substrate Cu. The prepared samples have been used as a photo-activated catalyst to directly decompose gaseous benzene and the optimized Co3O4/CuxO/FCu demonstrates a 99.5% removal efficiency and 100% mineralizing rate within 15 min in benzene concentration range from 350 to 4000 ppm under simulate solar light irradiation. To track the reactive mechanism, a series of MOx/CuxO/FCu (M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) is prepared and a novel photo-activated direct catalytic oxidation route is proposed based on the comparative investigation of material properties. Moreover, the approach grew in situ via layer upon layer oxidation on FCu dedicates to the extra lasting reusability and the easy accessibility in the diverse situations. This work provides a novel strategy for the preparation of Cu connected series multidimensional heterojunction array and a promising application for the quick abatement of the high-leveled concentration gaseous benzene and its derivatives from the industrial discharged flow or the accident scene's leakage.