title: Hierarchical heterostructures based on prickly Ni nanowires/Cu2O nanoparticles with enhanced photocatalytic activity.
abstract: Metal-semiconductor-based photocatalysts show high efficiencies and catalytic activities in the photocatalysis process. Herein, the magnetic and one-dimensional Ni-Cu2O heteronanowires have been fabricated via in situ reduction of pre-adsorbed Cu(2+) on the surface of prickly Ni nanowires in an ethanol solution for photocatalysis application. The resultant Ni-Cu2O heteronanowires show higher photocatalytic ability than pure Cu2O nanoparticles in the degradation of methyl orange. The enhancement of photocatalytic efficiency can be ascribed to the unique one-dimensional nanostructure and the electron sink effect of Ni nanowires in the heterostructure. It is believed that the low-cost metal Ni is an alternative candidate for substituting the costly metals (Au, Ag and Pt) to improve the photocatalytic ability of semiconductor-based photocatalysts.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shusheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Liangming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Nantao
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China. zhiyang@sjtu.edu.cn hunantao@sjtu.edu.cn yfzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yafei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang