Excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance of Cu2O sensitized NaNbO3 heterostructures

The photocatalytic activity of Cu 2 O/NaNbO 3 (CNO) heterostructures for the first time is reported in this work. Pure NaNbO 3 photocatalyst was synthesized via a facile hydrothermal reaction using Nb 2 O 5 and NaOH as the precursors. A series of Cu 2 O nanoparticle-modified NaNbO 3 was prepared via the chemical reduction of a Cu salt. The composition and morphology of the prepared CNO samples were characterized using variety of analytical methods. The results showed that the Cu 2 O nanoparticles were well distributed over the surface of the cube NaNbO 3 microstructure. The photocatalytic performance of the prepared samples was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation. The effects of MO degradation showed that the Cu 2 O nanoparticles could act as a sensitizer for improving the visible light absorption of NaNbO 3 cubes. We proposed a heterostructure between Cu 2 O and NaNbO 3 , by which the recombination of electrons and holes is efficiently inhibited and the photocatalytic activity is enhanced. Heterostructure complexes of Cu 2 O/NaNbO 3 exhibited high catalytic activities on the degradation of methyl orange.