%0 Journal Article %T Synthesis of novel p-n heterojunction photocatalyst from ZnO nanorod and Cu2O nanoparticles for degradation of Paraoxon insecticide under visible light irradiation %J Journal of Water and Environmental Nanotechnology %I Iranian Environmental Mutagen Society %Z 2476-7204 %A Hosseinzadeh, Ghader %D 2023 %\ 02/01/2023 %V 8 %N 1 %P 13-22 %! Synthesis of novel p-n heterojunction photocatalyst from ZnO nanorod and Cu2O nanoparticles for degradation of Paraoxon insecticide under visible light irradiation %K ZnO %K Cu2O %K Nanocomposite %K Type II %K Paraoxon %R 10.22090/jwent.2023.08.002 %X In the current work, a novel ZnO-Cu2O heterojunction was synthesized from ZnO nanorods and Cu2O nanoparticles via hydrothermal route and was applied for the first time as a visible light active photocatalyst for decomposition of Paraoxon insecticide. Crystallinity, shape and size of particles, and optical properties of the synthesized heterojunction nanocomposites were evaluated by XRD, FESEM, EDS, Mott-Schottky, photocurrent analysis and UV-Visible spectroscopy analyses. Based on the obtained results the ZnO-Cu2O heterojunction nanocomposite was successfully synthesized and compared to pure ZnO semiconductor has the enhanced photocatalytic efficiency. The nanocomposite with 40% weight percentage of Cu2O has the best photocatalytical activity of 0.0201 min-1, which could be related to the improvement of optical properties (increasing of the visible light harvesting ability) and the reduction of the recombination of the photoinduced electron-hole pairs. In addition, according to the radical trapping tests and Mott-Schottky experiments, superoxide radical was determined as the main oxidizing species for photocatalytic degradation of Paraoxon, and a type II charge transfer process was proposed for the improved photocatalytic activity. %U https://www.jwent.net/article_702112_99ab2ad01cdc36a7618059b3dd843fe7.pdf