Photocatalytic performance of CuO-loaded TiO/rGO nanoheterojunctions obtained by UV reduction.

A novel dot-like CuO-loaded TiO/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanoheterojunction was synthesized via UV light reduction for the first time. CuO with size of ca. 5 nm was deposited on rGO sheet and TiO nanosheets. The products were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectrum, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, XPS techniques, photoluminescence spectra. The results demonstrated that CuO and rGO enhanced the absorption for solar light, separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs, charge shuttle and transfer, and eventually improved photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic performance for contaminants degradation. The reaction time and anion precursor could affect the final copper-containing phase. As extending UV irradiation time, Cu was be first reduced to CuO and then transformed to metal Cu. In comparison with CHCOO (copper acetate), NO (copper nitrate) and Cl (copper chloride), SO (copper sulfate) was the optimum for synthesizing pure CuO phase.