Cu7.2S4 nanosheets decorated on the {3 3 2} high index facets of Cu2O with controllable oxygen defects and enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract The heterostructure of Cu7.2S4 nanosheets/trisoctahedron Cu2O were successfully constructed on the {3 3 2} high-index facets of Cu2O. The results show that oxygen defects amount of the Cu7.2S4/Cu2O samples are closely related to the thickness of Cu7.2S4 nanosheets. Compared with the unmodified cuprous oxide and the Cu7.2S4/Cu2O modified with thick Cu7.2S4 nanosheets, the Cu7.2S4/Cu2O grafted with 10 nm thickness of Cu7.2S4 show higher oxygen defects content and photocatalytic performance for MO decoloration. UV–VIS DRS and PL detection show that the Cu7.2S4 nanosheets grafting on Cu2O with high-index facets accelerates the charge carrier separation, which results in an elevated degradation properties for MO.