Synthesis of copper oxide vegetable sponges and their antibacterial, electrochemical and photocatalytic performance

Copper oxide (CuO) vegetable sponges with mesoporous structure were successfully prepared from pine tree needles cellulose as templates. The sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and nitrogen absorption–desorption. In the performance test, the obtained CuO vegetable sponges showed great antibacterial activities, as good as penicillin and kanamycin, especially towards Streptococcus faecalis. They also displayed active photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B molecules in aqueous solution. Electrochemical data demonstrated that the CuO vegetable sponges were capable of delivering a specific capacitance of 440 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 and offered good specific capacitance retention of 95.1% after 1,000 continuous charge–discharge cycles even at 5 A g−1.