Visible Light Driven Heterojunction Photocatalyst of CuO-Cu2O Thin Films for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants

Negar Dasineh Khiavi; Reza Katal; Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak; Saeid Masudy-Panah; Seeram Ramakrishna; Hu Jiangyong

doi:10.3390/nano9071011

Visible Light Driven Heterojunction Photocatalyst of CuO-Cu₂O Thin Films for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 Jul 13;9(7):1011. doi: 10.3390/nano9071011.

Authors

Negar Dasineh Khiavi¹, Reza Katal², Saeideh Kholghi Eshkalak³, Saeid Masudy-Panah⁴, Seeram Ramakrishna⁵, Hu Jiangyong⁶

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Biosciences & Medical Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, Johor 81310, Malaysia.
² Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260, Singapore.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore.
⁴ Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260, Singapore.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore. seeram@nus.edu.sg.
⁶ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260, Singapore. ceehujy@nus.edu.sg.

Abstract

A high recombination rate and low charge collection are the main limiting factors of copper oxides (cupric and cuprous oxide) for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. In this paper, a high performance copper oxide photocatalyst was developed by integrating cupric oxide (CuO) and cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) thin films, which showed superior performance for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) compared to the control CuO and Cu₂O photocatalyst. Our results show that a heterojunction photocatalyst of CuO-Cu₂O thin films could significantly increase the charge collection, reduce the recombination rate, and improve the photocatalytic activity.

Keywords: Cu2O; CuO; heterojunction; photocatalytic degradation.