Synthesis of Cu2O/T-ZnOW nanocompound and characterization of its photocatalytic activity and stability property under UV irradiation

Cu₂O/tetrapod-like ZnO whisker (T-ZnO_W) nanocompound was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal chemical method. The chemical composition, morphology, band gap and photocatalytic property of the Cu₂O/T-ZnO_W nanocompound were studied in detail. It was observed that the Cu₂O particles deposited on T-ZnO_W surface had a cubic structure and the crystallinity of T-ZnO_W did not change with the increase of Cu₂O crystals. The morphology and content of Cu₂O in the Cu₂O/T-ZnO_W nanocompound played an important role on the photocatalytic activity. In addition, the coexistence of Cu₂O and T-ZnO_W nanoparticles was propitious to the high photocatalytic activity owing to their hetero-junction effect. The Cu₂O/T-ZnO_W nanocompound prepared by 7.2% Cu/Zn MR exhibited the best photocatalytic activity on the degradation of MO solution under UV light irradiation. At the first 100 min of irradiation, the photodegradation efficiency of MO solution reached up to 99.16%, which still retained its high photocatalytic activity about 89.10% even at the end of the fourth cycle. Little change was found in their phase compositions after the photocatalytic reaction process, except partial oxidation of particles’ surface. The mechanism for UV light driven photocatalytic activity enhancement over Cu₂O/T-ZnO_W nanocompound was discussed.