Facile hydrothermal synthesis of CuO–Cu2O/GO nanocomposites for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dye and tetracycline pollutants

Abstract

A new CuO–Cu₂O/GO nanocomposite was prepared by using Cu(OAc)₂ and graphene oxide (GO) as the main raw materials under hydrothermal conditions in the presence of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The structures of CuO–Cu₂O/GO were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, XPS, TEM and HR-TEM. The results showed that the nanoparticles of CuO and Cu₂O as heterostructures have been simultaneously grown in situ on GO sheets with 10–15 nm particle size. The photocatalytic properties of the nanocomposite were evaluated for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and tetracycline pollutants. The designed nanocomposite showed excellent dual function catalytic ability for the rapid catalytic oxidation of tetracycline (TC) and methyl orange (MO). The degradation ratios of TC and MO reached 90% and 95% after 120 min (under visible light), respectively. The high catalytic activity is mainly due to the excellent photogenerated electron–hole transfer properties of the CuO–Cu₂O/GO nanocomposite.