Applied Surface Science, Vol.347, 747-754, 2015
Preparation and characterization of CuCrO2/TiO2 heterostructure photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic activity
A series of novel p-type CuCrO2/n-type TiO2 heterostructure photocatalysts were fabricated for the first time by depositing CuCrO2 nanoparticles on TiO2 nanorod-array film through a facile spin-coating method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photocurrent response were employed to characterize the as-synthesized composites. The photocatalytic activity of CuCrO2/TiO2 for degradation of methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution was much higher than pure TiO2, which could be ascribed to the formation of p-n heterojunctions between CuCrO2 nanopartides and TiO2 nanorods. In particular, the best degradation efficiency of CuCrO2/TiO2 heterojunction was 85.3%, about 1.14 times higher than pure TiO2 (74.6%), which could be attributed to their high separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes. It is expected this strategy of p-n junction for enhancing photocatalytic activity can have considerable impact to promote the development of high efficient photocatalyst and industrial application for degrading pollutant, treating waste water and other environmental protection fields. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.