Controlled synthesis of bow-tie shaped Au/CdS/CuO nanostructures with improved wettability, photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic properties

Abstract

Environmental pollution is becoming increasingly serious, and photodegradation using sustainable energy sources such as solar energy is of great importance. It has been shown that semiconductor photocatalysts are capable of converting solar energy into chemical energy to generate photogenerated carriers to degrade organic dyes in wastewater. In this paper, bow-tie shaped Au/CdS/CuO ternary complex photocatalysts were prepared on Cu foil by anodic oxidation, chemical bath deposition and ion sputtering. The effects of oxidation time, oxidation temperature and deposition concentration on their microscopic morphology and structure were investigated, and the photoelectric properties and photocatalytic synergistic mechanism were further analyzed. The experimental results show that Au/CdS/CuO has a unique skeleton and pore structure and exhibits a better photoelectric response, surface wettability and catalytic activity. Compared with pure CuO, its photoelectric response current increased by 7.3 times to 190 μA cm⁻², and the degradation rate of MB reached 97.3% within 180 min, and it still maintained great stability and catalytic activity after several cycles. Compared with powder and microbial catalysts, Au/CdS/CuO has the advantages of a short preparation time, good stability, reliability and no secondary pollution, which can bring greater economic benefits and better wastewater treatment results.