Controllable in-situ Synthesis of Cu-Cu2O Heterostructures with Enhanced Visible-light Photocatalytic Activity

The activity of heterogeneous catalysis depends on charge transfer from catalyst surface to adsorbed molecules. Thus the influence of nanoparticle-loaded heterostructures and core-shell heterostructures on photocatalytic performance is significant to be demonstrated. In this work, Cu-Cu2O heterostructures were controllably synthesized by in-situ reduction of Cu nanoparticles from octahedral Cu2O crystals and forming nanoparticle-loaded heterostructures (partial coverage I and partial coverage II) and the core-shell heterostructure (full coverage) by controlling the reaction time. The results indicate that optimal size and quantity of the loaded nanoparticles are required to attain the desirable performance by effectively separating and transferring photo-excited carriers.