Synthesis of Novel Hollow Copper Oxide Micro-Flowers Assembled by Nanoparticles and Their Improved Catalytic Performances for the Synthesis of Organosilane

In this work, novel sisal-like hollow CuO micro-flowers were synthesized via a facile solvothermal reaction followed by calcination. The flower-like shells of hollow CuO are constructed by irregular petals interweaving each other, which are composed of aggregated nanoparticles with sizes of ca. 18 nm. It was found that the flower-like morphology of the as-synthesized CuO products can be controlled via finely tuning the solvothermal reaction time. When used as catalysts for the synthesis of organosilane, the obtained hollow CuO micro-flowers exhibit better catalytic performances than the commercial CuO powders. Superior catalytic performances are due to the hollow and flower-like structures of the as-synthesized CuO products, which can promote the synthetic reaction for the organosilane, that is, the gas-solid contacting reaction occurred among the reaction gas, solid silicon powders and CuO catalysts. Our work will be helpful to design and develop the novel Cu-based nanocatalysts for the synthesis of organosilane.