The Synthesis And Photocatalytic Properties Of Cuprous Oxide And Its Composites By Hydrothermal Synthesis

Cuprous oxide?Cu₂O?is a p-type semiconductor with a band gap of about 2.17 eV.It can make full use of visible light,simple operation and non-toxic.It belongs to an ideal photocatalytic material and has attracted much attention from researchers.As a two-dimensional material,graphene has been widely concerned because of its excellent electrical and optical properties.Graphitic carbon nitride?g-C₃N₄?,as a new type of material,has good semiconductor properties and chemical stability.By combination the reduced graphene oxide and Graphitic carbon nitride with cuprous oxide,the photocatalytic properties of the materials can be effectively enhanced.In this study,different morphologies of cuprous oxide,Cu₂O/RGO and Cu₂O/g-C₃N₄ composites have been prepared by hydrothermal method.X ray diffraction?XRD?,scanning electron microscopy?SEM?and transmission electron microscopy?TEM?were used to characterize the composition and morphologies of the samples;The optical properties were analyzed by UV-Visible spectroscope and fluorescence spectrum;By comparising different catalysts,the properties of photogradation of methyl orange solution were discussed.Research shows that the morphologies of cube,14-facet polyhedral,octahedral and sphere of Cu₂O powder were synthesized by adding different amounts of surfactants.The spherical Cu₂O makes better photocatalytic performance due to its large surface area and smaller particle size,the degradation rate reached 68.88%.The photocatalytic properties of Cu₂O/RGO composites were improved by adding RGO.The photos show that Cu₂O had dispersed in the reduction of graphene oxide thin film.When the composite content of RGO was 0.03 g,the degradation rate reached89.90%,and the stability of composites were also improved.Cu₂O/g-C₃N₄ composite shows excellent photocatalytic performance and the stability is also improved.After 12 hours centrifugation,g-C₃N₄ showed lamellar structure and Cu₂O particles dispersed on the structure.When the g-C₃N₄ content is 0.5 g,the degradation rate can reach 95.70%.