Synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles assisted by ionic liquids and polyionic liquids for carbon dioxide reduction / Amirah Husna Mahrim

Amirah Husna , Mahrim (2024) Synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles assisted by ionic liquids and polyionic liquids for carbon dioxide reduction / Amirah Husna Mahrim. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Nanotechnology has received great attention due to its effectiveness in a variety of application, owing to small size and high surface area properties. One of them is copper (II) oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) that are used in catalysis reaction and adsorbent. There have been several attempts to customize the physical and morphological features of CuO NPs to specific requirements. Nevertheless, managing physical features of CuO NPs such as size distribution, morphology, and stability without agglomeration is the primary issue in synthesis. Therefore, ionic liquids (ILs) and polyionic liquids (PILs) has been chosen to overcome this problem. Three imidazolium based ILs with different types of side chains were synthesized via N-alkylation and polymerized under free radical polymerization. They are 1-vinyl-3-butyl imidazolium chloride, [VBIM][Cl], 1-vinyl-3- heptyl imidazolium chloride, [VHpIM][Cl], 1-vinyl-3-benzyl imidazolium chloride [VBzIM][Cl], Poly(1-Vinyl-3-Butyl Imidazolium Chloride), P[VBIM][Cl], Poly(1- Vinyl-3-Benzyl Imidazolium Chloride), P[VBzIM][Cl], and Poly(1-Vinyl-3-Heptyl Imidazolium Chloride), P[VHpIM][Cl]. The synthesized ILs and polyionic liquids (PILs) were used as nano-synthetic templates to assist the synthesis of CuO NPs via co-precipitation method. The type of side chains, either aliphatic or aromatic in ILs and PILs had a significant influence on the size distribution and morphology of CuO NPs. The findings showed that [PVHpIM][Cl] assisted the synthesis of CuO NPs and produced the smallest average particle sized of NPs at 29±5nm with good size distribution compared to other ILs/PILs. The longer the aliphatic side chains of the ILs and PILs, the smaller the size of CuO NPs that can be produced, as they proposed greater synergic effect. The results of this study also revealed that using PILs as the catalyst resulted in better stability and smaller size of CuO NPs than using the ILs. The results were validated by using FESEM. PILs have demonstrated the ability to provide more well-defined structures of CuO NPs while also improving their dispersion. The effect of size of CuO NPs on the catalytic and selective formation of formic acid in the CO2 electrochemical reduction reaction (ECR) was studied and explored at a potential reduction of 1.3 V (vs Ag/AgCl). From the electrolysis reaction, CuO-[VBIM][Cl] showed the highest Faradaic Efficiency (FE) to produce formic acid at 72.6% due to size. It can be conclude that the CO2 ECR reaction catalyzed at the highest performace by medium size of CuO NPs with a specific morphology.

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