Controlling interface properties for enhanced photocatalytic performance: A case-study of CuO/TiO2nanobelts

Abstract

TiO2 nanobelts with CuO modification were designed and fabricated via a facile strategy. The photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) is selected as a model reaction to investigate the photocatalytic performance of all as-prepared CuO/TiO2 nanobelts under full-spectrum light (300-2500 nm) irradiation. The optimized mass fraction of CuO is 0.1% for CuO/TiO2 composite nanobelts, namely CT-0.1 sample, which can almost completely degrade MO pollutant in 50 min. The as-obtained CuO/TiO2 composites are systematically investigated by a variety of physical and chemical characterizations. Therein, it can be obtained that superoxide radicals (•O2-) and hydroxyl radicals (OH) are the main active species in this photocatalytic system. The photoelectrochemical measurement clearly demonstrates that the enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the efficient separation and transfer of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, and lower overpotential for CuO/TiO2 nanobelts. This work provides a prototype to study the photocatalytic oxidation process, which contributes to the design and construction of highly-efficient composite photocatalysts.