Enhancement photoreduction CO2 performance via constructed C3N4/Cu2O p-n heterojunction

In this work, we formed C3N4/Cu2O (CN/Cu2O) composite photocatalysts by growing Cu2O in situ on C3N4 (CN) via oil bath method. The heterojunction between CN and Cu2O can broaden the light absorption range, enhance the light absorption, reduce the internal resistance to electron transfer and improve the efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole separation, thus enhancing the photocatalytic performance of carbon nitride. The photocatalytic performance of the synthesized CN/Cu2O composite photocatalysts was also tested. The test results showed that the best photocatalytic performance of CN/Cu2O-60 was achieved at 2.27 μmolg−1h−1 under 3 h xenon lamp irradiation, which was 8.5 and 5.7 times that of pure CN and pure Cu2O, respectively.