A novel one-step electron beam irradiation method for synthesis of Ag/Cu2O nanocomposites

In this paper, a novel method for fabrication of silver/cuprous oxide (Ag/Cu2O) nanocomposites is reported. The method involves the reduction of Ag+ and Cu2+ in the aqueous solution to Ag/Cu2O without adding any reducing reagent under electron beam (EB) irradiation. Dye methyl orange is used as the pollutant model to investigate the photocatalytic properties of these nanocomposites. The results reveal that they have higher photocatalytic efficiencies than that of Cu2O under visible light. These visible light-sensitive catalysts may have potential application in the field of environmental remediation.