Template synthesis and characterization of Cu₂O/TiO₂ coaxial nanocable for photocatalysis

Abstract

Coaxial nanocable consisted of p-type Cu₂O nanowires and n-type TiO₂ nanotubes arrays was prepared in the porous anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) template via the sol-gel method and subsequent electrodeposition method. X-ray diffraction analysis identified an anatase structure of the TiO₂ nanotubes and cubic structure of the Cu₂O nanowires. The obtained samples were also characterized by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS). The diffrence of open circuit potential of the coaxial nanocable electrode was larger than that of the TiO₂ nanotubes electrode under ultraviolet illumination, which means doping with Cu₂O could improve the photovoltage effectively. Meanwhile, nanocable arrays exhibited a high activity for photodegrading Rhodamine B under Xe lamp irradiation and the photocatalysis degradation efficiency was up to 98.69% after degradation for 7 h. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the high migration efficiency of photoinduced electrons, which may suppress the charge recombination effectively.

Keywords

TiO₂ / Cu₂O / Coaxial nanocable / Heterojunction / Photocatalysis

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