Electrodeposition of hierarchical ZnO/Cu2O nanorod films for highly efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic applications

The development of high-performance visible-light-responsive photocatalytic materials has attracted widespread interest due to their potential applications in the environmental and energy industries. In this work, hierarchical ZnO nanorods films were successfully prepared on the stainless steel mesh substrates via a simple two-step seed-assisted electrodeposition route. Cu2O nanoparticles were then electrodeposited on the surface of ZnO nanorods to form the core-shell heterostructure. The synthesized ZnO/Cu2O nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and UV-visible spectrophotometer. Due to the branched hierarchical morphologies and core-shell structure, ZnO/Cu2O nanomaterials show a prominent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance under the low-intensity light irradiation (40 mW/cm(2)). The influence of some experimental parameters, such as Cu2O loading amount, ZnO morphologies, the substrate type, and the PH of the Cu2O precursor solution on ZnO/Cu2O photocatalytic performance was evaluated. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.