Acta Chimica Slovaca (ACS) publishes papers on fundamental and applied aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical technology, chemical engineering and process control, biotechnology and food technology. Welcome are also topics which include chemical aspects of materials, physical chemistry and chemical physics, analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Synergetic effects of Cu2O photocatalyst with titania and enhanced photoactivity under visible irradiation

Dongfang Zhang *

College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, PR China

E-mail: * zdfbb@yahoo.cn

Abstract: Heterogeneous TiO2/Cu2O nanocomposite was synthesized for photocatalysis through surface impregnation in conjunction with the environmentally friendly soft chemical reduction strategy. The detailed structural, compositional, optical and photoelectrochemical properties of the obtained products are analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS), photoluminescence spectra (PL) and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy techniques. Moreover, methyl orange (MO) dye was chosen as the probe molecule for evaluation of the photocatalytic activities of the samples under visible light (l > 420 nm) irradiation. The experiments demonstrated that MO in aqueous solution was more efficiently photodegraded using TiO2/Cu2O composite photocatalysts than pure Cu2O alone. This was attributed to the good crystallinity, wide visible-light absorption range, and the efficient electron-hole pair separation properties of the TiO2/Cu2O nanoheterostructures. In this photocatalyst, visible-light-active Cu2O component was used as a medium to absorb photons and convert them into photogenerated charges, and TiO2 nanoparticles were used as charge collectors to transport the photoinduced charges. The TiO2/Cu2O hybrid material showed improved separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs owing to the potential-energy differences between Cu2O and TiO2, and therefore exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Keywords: photodecomposition, coupled semiconductor, methyl orange

Full paper in Portable Document Format: acs_0157.pdf

Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2013, pp. 141—149, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2013-0022