Facile one-step synthesis of PhCCu nanowires with enhanced photocatalytic performance.

In recent years, the research of phenylethynylcopper (PhCCu) in photocatalysis has attracted immense attention. However, its synthesis requires two steps extending over 9 days. In this paper, the successful preparation of PhCCu nanowires is reported using a highly rapid and facile one-step method directly using copper acetate and phenylacetylene as raw materials and ascorbic acid as reducing agent. The kinetic studies indicated that the synthetic reaction follows a pseudo-second-order equation through electrical conductivity. Comparative studies of the crystal structures, morphologies, and optical properties of PhCCu prepared by the traditional two-step and the current one-step methods were conducted using XRD, SEM, UV-Vis Drs, FT-IR, Raman spectra, and photocurrent. Meanwhile, the PhCCu nanowires exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity to degrade methyl violet (MV) and glyphosate. This facile and rapid method dramatically improves the preparation efficiency of PhCCu, and the obtained PhCCu also shows higher photocatalytic activity. This remarkable progress enables the possibility of large-scale and efficient preparation of PhCCu with high photocatalytic activity, indicating their excellent application prospect in photocatalysis.