Photocatalytic performance of Cu(2)O-loaded TiO(2)/rGO nanoheterojunctions obtained by UV reduction

A novel dot-like Cu(2)O-loaded TiO(2)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanoheterojunction was synthesized via UV light reduction for the first time. Cu(2)O with size of ca. 5 nm was deposited on rGO sheet and TiO(2) nanosheets. The products were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectrum, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, XPS techniques, photoluminescence spectra. The results demonstrated that Cu(2)O and rGO enhanced the absorption for solar light, separation efficiency of electron–hole pairs, charge shuttle and transfer, and eventually improved photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic performance for contaminants degradation. The reaction time and anion precursor could affect the final copper-containing phase. As extending UV irradiation time, Cu(2+) was be first reduced to Cu(2)O and then transformed to metal Cu. In comparison with CH(3)COO(−) (copper acetate), NO(3) (−) (copper nitrate) and Cl(−) (copper chloride), SO(4) (2−) (copper sulfate) was the optimum for synthesizing pure Cu(2)O phase. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10853-017-0911-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.