Highly enhanced photocatalytic H2 evolution of Cu2O microcube by coupling with TiO2 nanoparticles

摘要： The improvement of photocatalytic performance could be attributed to the formation of p-n heterojunction. Furthermore, the interface effect of Cu2O and TiO2 caused a broader absorbance in visible light region and the lower recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. It is believed that the Cu2O/TiO2 p-n heterojunction composites could provide an alternative method to design highly efficient photocatalysts for solar energy. The yield remained around 92.6% after three cycles. Hydrogen production of the Cu2O/TiO2 (60 wt. %, labeled as CT-60) exhibits the highest enhanced photocatalytic activities in hydrogen production with H2 evolution 3002.5 μmol/g. CT-60 is 103 and 8.5 fold higher than cubic Cu2O and TiO2 nanoparticles, respectively. The photocatalytic performance of the composite was effectively tuned by controlling the amount of TiO2. A Cu2O/TiO2 p-n heterojunctions composite was created via a facile, controllable, and one-pot hydrothermal method based on cubic Cu2O and TiO2 nanoparticles in the presence of dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) surfactant. The TiO2 nanoparticles with average edge length of ~10.1 nm were uniformly distributed on the crystal surface of Cu2O cube {100}.