Controlled preparation of Ag–Cu2O nanocorncobs and their enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light

•Ag–Cu2O nanocorncobs have been controllably prepared by a simple synthesis.•The possible formation mechanism of Ag–Cu2O has been studied.•Ag–Cu2O exhibits noticeable improved photocurrent compared with the pure Cu2O NWs.•Ag–Cu2O with suitably exposed Ag surface shows much higher photocatalytic activity.

Novel corncob-like nano-heterostructured Ag–Cu2O photocatalyst has been controllably prepared by adjusting the synthetic parameters, and the possible formation mechanism has been also studied. The photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic performances demonstrated that the as-prepared Ag–Cu2O nanocorncobs exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than both pure Cu2O nanowires and cable-like Ag@Cu2O nano-composites. It was concluded that Ag–Cu2O nanocorncobs with suitably exposed Ag surface not only effectively inhibit the recombination of electron–hole pairs but also suitably increase the active sites of electronic conduction, and thus increasing the photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation.

Graphical abstractThe corncob-like Ag–Cu2O nanostructure with suitably exposed Ag surface exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity than Ag@Cu2O nanocables and Cu2O nanowires.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide