Preparation, optical property, and photocatalytic activity of cubic Cu2O/amorphous TiO2 and spheric CuO/TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites

Cu2O/amorphous TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites with uniform cubic structure were prepared by a hydrolysis method and CuO/TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites were obtained by a post-calcination process. The structure and morphology of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the cubic Cu2O/TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites were of 110-140 nm in side length and the as-hydrolyzed TiO2 shell layer was amorphous. The products transformed to quasi-spheric CuO/TiO2 (anatase) nanocomposites after calcination. The visible-light photocatalytic properties of different products towards methyl orange (MO) were investigated. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of the cubic Cu2O/amorphous TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites was higher than that of pure Cu2O nanocubes, pure TiO2 nanoparticles, and the spheric CuO/TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites.