A Facile Method for Preparation of Cu 2 O-TiO 2 NTA Heterojunction with Visible-Photocatalytic Activity.

Based on highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs), we successfully fabricated the Cu2 O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction by a simple thermal decomposition process for the first time. The anodic TiO2 NTAs were functioned as both "nano-container" and "nano-reactors" to load and synthesize the narrow band Cu2 O nanoparticles. The loaded Cu2 O expanded absorption spectrum of the TiO2 NTAs from ultraviolent range to visible light range. We found that the Cu2 O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction films had visible activity towards photocatalytic degrading methyl orange (MO). The photocatalytic abilities of the Cu2 O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction films were found increased with the Cu2 O content from 0.05 to 0.3 mol/L. This could be explained by more electron-hole pairs generated and less recombination, when the Cu2 O-TiO2 heterojunction got formed. Here, we put forward this promising method, hoping it can facilitate the mass production and applications of Cu2 O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction.