Composites having both maximized adsorption cap,ability and high photocatalytic activity are very promising for pollutant removal by combining adsorption and photocatalysis. In this work, we report a facile sonochemical synthesis of Cu2O(nanoparticles)/Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3(sheets) composites with tunable composition using only copper powders and Cu(NO3)(2) as precursors. The composites can be controlled from almost pure Cu2O (98.1%) to pure Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3 (95.9%) through adjusting the initial ratio of Cu2+:Cu and sonication time. Controlled experiments show that Cu2O nanoparticles are formed first via the redox reaction between Cu2+ and Cu-0, after that Cu2O are converted to Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3 center dot Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3 synthesized using the sonochemical method exhibits outstanding adsorption capability toward organic dyes, subsequently Cu2O can degrade them quickly via photocatalysis, so the Cu2O/Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3 composites are very efficient to remove pollutant due to the synergetic effect of adsorption and photocatalysis. In particular, composite with 30.6% of Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3 and 69.4% of Cu2O shows the highest removal capability and good stability. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.