Synthesis of Cu2O nanocrystallites and their adsorption and photocatalysis behavior

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nano-crystallites have been prepared via an electrochemical method by the anodic dissolution of copper in an alkaline solution of concentrated sodium chloride in a simple electrochemical cell. The effect of addition of glucose on the crystal size, structure and photocatalytic activity of Cu2O particles was studied. Photocatalytic decolorization of MeO in aqueous Cu2O suspensions was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to characterize the samples. UV–vis Spectroscopy was employed to investigate the photocatalysis behavior of the Cu2O samples. The adsorption performance of the Cu2O samples showed that after adsorption of 2 h, the decolorization efficiencies of MO reached 11.81%, 95.24% and 56.53% for samples 1, 2 and 3, respectively, which proves that sample 2 has the highest adsorption capacity. The photocatalytic results showed that the as prepared Cu2O on the addition of 5 g/L glucose was the best sample since it was photostable and decolorized 98.7% of MeO solution in 30 min without any further decrease in the photocatalytic efficiency with increase in the irradiation time for 120 min. Higher concentrations of glucose lead to the decrease of photocatalytic efficiencies of the Cu2O particles.