Facile synthesis of mesoporous cuprous oxide nanoparticles for enhanced visible-light-driven photodegradation

The visible-light-active mesoporous cuprous oxide nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via a facile precipitation process with the presence of gelatin, which was demonstrated to play an important role in the formation of mesoporous structure and the grain size control. The nanoscale grain size and mesoporous structure lead to lager specific surface area with the addition of gelatin. Furthermore, the photodegradation of as-prepared catalysts in the presence of gelatin toward the negatively charged methyl orange (MO) was investigated. The cuprous oxide displayed an excellent visible light photocatalytic activity of MO, owing to its exposed active (111) face and large specific surface area. The adsorption of positively charged methyl blue (MB) revealed that the mesoporous cuprous oxide displayed better adsorption of anionic dye MB due to the residual gelatin on the surface of the grains, compared to that in the absence of gelatin.