Zhang Su-Wei, Li Shun, Zhang Bo-Ping, Yu Dongfang, Zhang Zuotai, Li Jing-Feng
The Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials and Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing Beijing 100083 China
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China.
RSC Adv. 2019 Feb 11;9(9):5045-5052. doi: 10.1039/c8ra09204d. eCollection 2019 Feb 5.
Nobel metal (Au and Ag) nanoparticles are often used in semiconductor photocatalysis to enhance the photocatalytic activity, while inexpensive Cu attracts less attention due to its easy oxidization. Herein, an elaborate study was conducted using Cu-nanoparticle-dispersed amorphous BaTiO films as photocatalysts. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical measurements demonstrated that the degradation efficiency and photocurrent density of the nanocomposite films are approximately 3.5 and 10 times as high as the pristine BaTiO film, respectively, which can be ascribed to a synergetic effect of the surface plasmon resonance and interband excitation. In addition, a good stability was also demonstrated by cyclic tests for the degradation of rhodamine B, which may be due to the amorphous nature of the BaTiO matrix providing hole-trapping centers. The high photocatalytic stability suggests that Cu is a promising alternative metal to replace Au and Ag for the development of cost-effective photocatalysts. Our work demonstrates a simple and promising strategy for improving the photostability of Cu nanomaterials and may provide a useful guideline for designing Cu-based composite materials toward various photocatalytic applications such as water pollution treatment.
贵金属（金和银）纳米颗粒常用于半导体光催化以提高光催化活性，而廉价的铜由于易于氧化而较少受到关注。在此，我们以分散有铜纳米颗粒的非晶态钛酸钡薄膜作为光催化剂进行了详细研究。光催化和光电化学测量表明，纳米复合薄膜的降解效率和光电流密度分别约为原始钛酸钡薄膜的3.5倍和10倍，这可归因于表面等离子体共振和带间激发的协同效应。此外，通过对罗丹明B降解的循环测试也证明了良好的稳定性，这可能是由于钛酸钡基体的非晶态性质提供了空穴捕获中心。高光催化稳定性表明，铜是开发具有成本效益的光催化剂时替代金和银的有前景的替代金属。我们的工作展示了一种提高铜纳米材料光稳定性的简单且有前景的策略，并可能为设计用于各种光催化应用（如水污染处理）的铜基复合材料提供有用的指导。
