In-situ chemical vapor deposition to fabricate Cuprous oxide/copper sulfide core-shell flowers with boosted and stable wide-spectral region photocatalytic performance

Abstract Cu2O is widely used in the visible-light photocatalytic field, but its photocatalytic activity and stability still need to be further enhanced. Thus, searching for an efficient method to inhibit photocorrosion of Cu2O and boost its photogenerated charge carriers’ separation is very important and challenging. Herein, Cu2O@CuS core-shell hexapetalous flowers were synthesized by hydrothermal and in-situ chemical vapor deposition (CVD) strategy. The Cu2O hexapetalous flowers were firstly obtained through hydrothermal procedure, and then CuS in-situ grew on Cu2O to form core-shell structure by CVD, which effectively inhibited the photocorrosion of Cu2O. Meanwhile, Cu2O@CuS core-shell structure could extend their light absorption ranges from 200 to 1500 nm; promote the separation of electrons and holes in photocatalytic system. Thus, under the wide-spectral region, Cu2O@CuS exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance for the degradation of tetracycline at 91% with good cycling ability, resulting from the effective separation of photogenerated charges, more free radicals such as OH and O2−, increases of utilization rate of visible-light. These results indicate that in-situ CVD strategy is a feasible method to improve visible-light photocatalytic activity and stability of Cu2O.