The practical deployment of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) in photocatalytic remediation is severely restricted by its intrinsic photocorrosion and fast charge recombination. To address these issues, a novel water-mediated in situ one-pot hydrothermal-calcination strategy is developed to fabricate a robust ternary In2O3/Cu/Cu2O heterojunction. Water acts as a kinetic regulator to precisely control Cu reduction and phase evolution, enabling intimate interfacial contact among In2O3, metallic Cu, and Cu2O. The optimized composite shows outstanding photocatalytic activity for sulfamethoxazole (SMX) degradation under simulated sunlight, with a rate constant of 0.0181 min-1, 36.2 times higher than pure Cu2O. It also exhibits excellent photostability, retaining 94.4% activity after five cycles with negligible Cu leaching. Mechanistic studies reveal a Cu-mediated all-solid-state Z-scheme charge transfer pathway. The Cu bridge serves as an electron relay, extracting photogenerated electrons from the Cu2O conduction band to recombine with holes in the In2O3 valence band. This suppresses Cu2O self-reduction while maintaining high redox potential for reactive radicals (∙O2⁻, h+) generation. This work provides a green, facile route to design stable multi-component Z-scheme photocatalysts for efficient removal of refractory pharmaceutical pollutants.
Zhu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: