Facile in-situ synthesis of 2D/3D g-C3N4/Cu2O heterojunction for high-performance photocatalytic dye degradation

Abstract

Constructing heterojunction is a promising method to enhance visible-light utility and promote photogenerated e ^− -h ^+ pairs separation of g-C _3 N _4 . Herein, the present work reported a g-C _3 N _4 /Cu _2 O heterojunction by a facile in situ synthetic strategy. The structure, morphology, optical, electrochemical and photocatalytic properties were investigated. The results showed the combination of g-C _3 N _4 nanosheets and Cu _2 O nanospheres resulted in the close contact interface and wide visible-light response range, and fast separation of the photo-generated e ^− -h ^+ pairs. The pristine g-C _3 N _4 showed weak photocatalytic performance towards methyl orange (MO) under visible-light irradiation, compared with pristine g-C _3 N _4 , the photocatalytic degradation rate of optimized g-C _3 N _4 /Cu _2 O composite demonstrates the substantially enhanced photocatalytic activity, which showed no obvious loss after five repeated use. The enhanced performance was ascribed to the synergistic effect of good visible-light harvesting and enhanced separation rate of the charge carriers.

Keywords

• g-C3N4 nanosheets
• Cu2O nanospheres
• visible light response
• charge separation
• MO degradation