Copper Oxide Coupled Titanium Dioxide (CuO/TiO₂) Nanocomposite Photocatalyst for Degradation of Methyl Orange Dye

Abstract:

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) was utilized in photocatalysis applications due to their non- toxic, cheap and high photocatalytic activity. However, its photocatalytic reaction is limited by low surface area as well as the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and only has ability to absorb a small fraction (<5%) of indoor light. In this study, copper oxide coupled titanium dioxide (CuO/TiO₂) nanocomposite photocatalyst was synthesized using hydrothermal method. The synthesised photocatalyst was characterized by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Brunauer, Emmett, teller (BET) and UV- Visible Spectroscopy. Spectra obtained from FTIR have proved that there are existence of O-H stretching, O-H vibration and metal-O bond that correlates to the functional groups of the samples. As affirmed by XRD analysis, highly crystalline rutile TiO₂ phase was obtained for pure TiO₂ samples. Rutile TiO₂ phase is remained and additional peaks belong to copper oxide was observed for CuO/TiO₂ nanocomposite photocatalyst sample. This finding suggesting that copper oxide was successfully loaded onto TiO₂. Morphological study from SEM shows the presence of short rod-like particles of copper oxide and agglomerated TiO₂ bulk particles. BET surface area for CuO, TiO₂ and CuO/TiO₂ nanocomposite photocatalysts were 20.50 m²/g, 15.26 m²/g and 17.13 m²/g, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) was found to be 85.0% using CuO/TiO₂ nanocomposite photocatalyst, which is better than pure TiO₂ and pure CuO after 3 hours reaction.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 932)
• Pages: 39-44
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/p-ofbw53
• Online since: September 2022
• Authors: Alina Irwana Muhamad A'srai*, Razali Mohd Hasmizam
• Keywords: Copper Oxide, Degradation, Nanocomposite, Photocatalyst, Titanium Dioxide

References

[1] Yadav, V., &Yadav, T. (2018). Climate change and urban settlements: A spatial perspective of carbon footprint and beyond by Mahendra Sethi, Routledge, Oxon and New York. Nargarlok, 230, 86-89.

DOI: 10.4324/9781315398501

[2] Harikishore, K.R.D. (2017). Water Pollution Control Technologies. Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies, Elsevier.

[3] Wu, Z., Guo, X., Lv, C., Wang, H., & Di, D. (2018). Study on the quantification method of water pollution ecological compensation standard based on emergy theory. Ecological Indicators, 92, 189–194.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.09.052

[4] Kim, J.S., Sung, H.J., & Kim, B.J. (2015). Photocatalytic characteristics for the nanocrystalline TiO2 on the Ag-doped CaAl2O4:(Eu,Nd) phosphor. Applied Surface Science, 334, 151–156.

DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2014.08.169

[5] Babu, S.G., Karthik, P., John, M.C., Lakhera, S. K., Ashokkumar, M., Khim, J., & Neppolian, B. (2018). Synergistic effect of sono-photocatalytic process for the degradation of organic pollutants using CuO-TiO2/rGO. Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, August.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.09.021

[6] Singh, P., & Tan, C. M. (2016). Degradation Physics of High Power LEDs in Outdoor Environment and the Role of Phosphor in the degradation process. Scientific Reports, 6, 1–13.

DOI: 10.1038/srep24052

[7] Sahu, I. P., Bisen, D. P., Tamrakar, R. K., Murthy, K. V. R., & Mohapatra, M. (2017). Luminescence Studies on the europium doped strontium metasilicate phosphor prepared by solid state reaction method Journal of Science : Advanced Materials and Devices Luminescence studies on the europium doped strontium metasilicate phosphor prepared by s. Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices, 2(1), 59–68.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jsamd.2017.01.001

[8] Theivasanthi, T., & Alagar, M. (2013). Titanium dioxide (TiO2) Nanoparticles XRD Analyses: An Insight. Chemical Physics, 1-10.

[9] Zulkifli, R.C., Razali M.H., Azaman, F., Ali, A., & Nor, M. A. A. M. (2018). Synthesis and characterization of Al-Fe-Cu tri-doped TiO2 by in-situ hydrothermal for degradation of methylene blue dyes. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 440(1), 1-7.

DOI: 10.1088/1757-899x/440/1/012019

[10] Wang, X., Deng, M., Zhao, Z., Zhang, Q., & Wang, Y. (2022). Synthesis of super-hydrophobic CuO/ZnO layered composite nano-photocatalyst. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 276, 125305.

DOI: 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2021.125305

[11] Laysandra, L., Sari, M. W. M. K., Soetaredjo, F. E., Foe, K., Putro, J. N., Kurniawan, A., & Ismadji, S. (2017). Adsorption and photocatalytic performance of bentonite-titanium dioxide composites for methylene blue and rhodamine B decoloration. Heliyon, 3(12), 1-22.

DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2017.e00488

[12] Singh, J., Kaur, G., & Rawat, M. (2016). A brief review on synthesis and characterization of copper oxide nanoparticles and its applications. J. Bioelectron. Nanotechnol, 1(9).

[13] Devi, H.S., & Singh, T.D. (2014). Synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles by a novel method and its application in the degradation of methyl orange. Advance in Electronic and Electric engineering, 4(1), 83-88.