Surface plasmon resonance enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity in Cu nanoparticles covered Cu 2 O microspheres for degrading organic pollutants

Yahui Cheng, Yuanjing Lin, Jianping Xu, Jie He, Tianzhao Wang, Guojun Yu, Dawei Shao, Wei Hua Wang, Feng Lu, Lan Li, Xiwen Du, Weichao Wang, Hui Liu, Rongkun Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

Micron-sized Cu 2 O with different coverage of Cu nanoparticles (NPs) on the sphere has been synthesized by a redox procedure. The absorption spectra show that Cu NPs induce the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) at the wavelength of ∼565 nm. Methylene blue (MB) photodegrading experiments under visible-light display that the Cu 2 O-Cu-H 2 O 2 system exhibits a superior photocatalytic activity to Cu 2 O-H 2 O 2 or pure H 2 O 2 with an evident dependency on Cu coverage. The maximum photodegradation rate is 88% after visible-light irradiating for 60 min. The role of the Cu NPs is clarified through photodegradation experiments under 420 nm light irradiation, which is different from the SPR wavelength of Cu NPs (∼565 nm). By excluding the SPR effect, it proves that Cu SPR plays a key role in the photodegradation. Besides, a dark catalytic activity is observed stemming from the Fenton-like reaction with the aid of H 2 O 2 . The radical quenching experiments indicate that both •O 2 - and •OH radicals contribute to the photocatalysis, while the dark catalysis is only governed by the •OH radicals, leading to a lower activity comparing with the photocatalysis. Therefore, with introducing Cu NPs and H 2 O 2 , the Cu 2 O-based photocatalytic activity could be significantly improved due to the SPR effect and dark catalysis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)120-128
Number of pages9
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume366
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 15 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cu O
  • Photocatalysis
  • Surface plasmon resonance
  • Visible-light-driven

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