Anchoring CuO nanospindles on g-C3N4 nanosheets for photocatalytic pollutant degradation and CO2 reduction

This work has prepared a series of CuO/g-C3N4 nanocomposites with CuO nanospindles anchoring on g-C3N4 nanosheets by facile ultrasonic treatment and impregnation method. The optimum 15%CuO/g-C3N4 sample exhibited higher efficiency, about 9 times and 20 times than pure g-C3N4 for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and CO2 reduction respectively. Morphology of CuO and composition of CuO/g-C3N4 photocatalysts were fully characterized. The excellent performance of CuO/g-C3N4 nanocomposites is mainly attributed to novel morphology and its pivotal effect on light absorption, dynamics of charge carriers, and regulated band structure. We put forward a new combination method of CuO nanospindles with g-C3N4 nanosheets by simple and green preparation, which may pave the way for the synthesis of CuO/g-C3N4 heterojunctions and its photocatalysis application both in environment and energy.