LAUSR

Well-dispersed mesoporous spherical Cu2O assembled by small nanoparticles was synthesized by a green and rapid solution route at room temperature under assistance of ultrasonic, using eco-friendly ascorbic acid(AA) as the main reducing agent and glucose as a weak reducing agent and soft template. The Cu2O spheres were characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, XPS and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm. Its optical property was studied by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance absorption spectrum and the photocatalytic activities were evaluted by photodegradations of methylene blue(MB) under different light sources. The results show that each spherical Cu2O(ca. 200 nm in diameter) was accumulated by numerous small nanoparticles of 8―10 nm and mesopores exist between the nanoparticles, which result in a high BET surface area. The spherical Cu2O exhibits good light-harvesting ability in both UV and visible light region and excellent photodegradation activities to high concentrations of MB solutions under both UV-visible light and visible light.