Dandelion-Like Nanostructured Cu/Cu₂O Heterojunctions with Fast Diffusion Channels Enabling Rapid Photocatalytic Pollutant Removal

The low utilization of photogenerated carriers and the limited diffusion of solvents are the major bottlenecks of Cu 2 O-based photocatalysts for organic pollutant removal. In the effort to overcome these issues, this work, based on the DFT calculations and inspired by the dandelion structure, successfully synthesized nanostructured Cu/Cu 2 O photocatalysts with effective solvent diffusion channels and high carrier utilization. These catalysts with interconnected nanotube structure (the “stem”) and hollow nanosphere morphology containing active facets (the “fruit”) not only show increased reaction sites, but also contain the Cu/Cu 2 O heterojunction for facilitating the transfer and separation of photogenerated carriers at the interface. Consequently, the as-prepared Cu/Cu 2 O-4 nanocatalyst delivers excellent photocatalytic performance, that is, the removal efficiency of high-concentration Orange II (100 mg L –1 ) reaches 90% within 10 min and can be maintained at 90.4% after four cycles. This work provides a promising route for the construction of high-performance catalysts, as well as the mechanism for study of organic pollutant removal.