Folded-up thin carbon nanosheets grown on CuO cubes for improving photocatalytic activity.

Fabrication of carbon films on semiconductor micro/nanocrystals improves their photocatalytic performance. However, the carbon coating can often lead to reduction in their activity because of the blocking of the reaction sites. Herein, we report the synthesis of folded-up thin carbon nanosheets on CuO cubes by surface etching, which increase the photocatalytic activity of Au/CuO 2 fold due to the enhancement in light absorption and charge separation.