Hydrothermal synthesis of hexagonal CuSe nanoflakes with excellent sunlight-driven photocatalytic activity

Hexagonal CuSe nanoflakes with a lateral size of 200-800 nm and a thickness of 15-40 nm have been successfully synthesized by a concentrated alkaline hydrothermal method in which CuCl and Se powder were used as raw materials. Experimental results show that the amount of polyvinylpyrrolidone and the NaOH concentration play important roles in the formation of hexagonal CuSe nanoflakes. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized hexagonal CuSe nanoflakes was investigated by the photocatalytic degradation of organic methylene blue (MB) under natural sunlight irradiation. It is found that hexagonal CuSe nanoflakes exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity and repeatability and above 99% MB in wastewater can be degraded after sunlight irradiation for 25 min in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.