Construction of rGO wrapping octahedral Ag-Cu2O heterostructure for enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

Abstract A ternary reduced graphene oxide wrapped octahedral Ag-Cu2O (Ag-Cu2O/rGO) photocatalyst has been synthesized through a facile one-pot water bath method at 55 °C. The ternary Ag-Cu2O/rGO composites possessed a novel heterostructure, in which Cu2O octahedra were decorated with dense Ag nanoparticles and were wrapped with thin rGO nanosheets. The ternary Ag-Cu2O/rGO photocatalyst exhibited much higher activity in photodegradations of phenol in water under visible light than either pure Cu2O or binary Cu2O/rGO or Ag-Cu2O composites. The photo-excited electrons from Cu2O transferred to rGO and Ag, leading to the separation of the electron-hole pairs. The incorporation of rGO not only suppressed the recombination of electron-hole pairs but also prevented the agglomeration of Ag nanoparticles. Ag nanoparticles played an important role in the photocatalysis owing to the surface plasmon resonance.