Convenient and green soft chemical route to cuprous oxide films and their visible-light photocatalytic properties

Cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) films have been synthesised by a convenient and green soft chemical route at room temperature. The films were obtained through the chemical reduction of copper acetate by ascorbic acid in solutions with ethylene glycol and deionised water. X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy, as well as UV-Vis spectroscopy (UV-Vis) were used to characterise the resulting films. It was obvious from the SEM image that the obtained films were composed of nanosphere particles with a size of 100-400 nm. The photocatalytic activity of degradation of methyl orange (MO) of the obtained Cu₂O films, H₂O₂ and H₂O₂/Cu₂O films system under visible light irradiation was also investigated. The results have shown that the system exhibits high catalytic ability under visible light irradiation. Also, there was a strong synergistic effect between the obtained Cu₂O films and H₂O₂ when the system was used to degrade MO.