Low-Cost Synthesis of Cu-Modified Immobilized Nanoporous TiO2 for Photocatalytic Degradation of 1H-Benzotriazole

Abstract

Cu-modified immobilized nanoporous TiO 2 photocatalysts, prepared by electrochemical anodization of titanium foils, were obtained via four different synthesis methods: hydrothermal synthesis, anodization with Cu source, electrodeposition, and spin-coating, using two different copper sources, Cu(NO 3 ) 2 and Cu(acac) 2 . The objective of this research was to investigate how copper modifications can improve the photocatalytic activity of immobilized nanoporous TiO 2 under the UV/solar light irradiation. The best photocatalytic performances were obtained for Cu-modifications using spin-coating. Therefore, the effect of irradiated catalyst surface areas on the adsorption of model pollutants, methylene blue (MB) and 1H-benzotriazole (BT), was examined for samples with Cu-modification by the spin-coating technique. The mechanisms responsible for increased degradation of MB and BT at high Cu concentrations (0.25 M and 0.5 M) and decreased degradation at low Cu loadings (0.0625 M and 0.125 M) were explained. 1H-benzotriazole was used to study the photocatalytic activity of the given samples because it is highly toxic and present in most water systems. The characterization of the synthesized Cu-modified photocatalysts in terms of phase composition, crystal structure, and morphology were investigated using X-ray Diffraction, Raman Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

Nanomaterials in Photo (Electro) Catalysis

“…The photocatalysts characterization performed by X-ray Diffraction, Raman Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and the investigation on the photocatalytic activity, allows to establish a correlation among the synthesis path, the Cu concentration, and the photocatalytic activity. The overall results point out that spin-coating is faster, cheaper, and more suitable for scale-up synthesis of the investigated photocatalyst [10].…”

Photodegradation of Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B Using Laser-Synthesized ZnO Nanoparticles

“…Photocatalytic degradation rates were calculated using pseudo-first order reaction rate model, described in [ 37 , 38 ], using the formula: where C is the concentration of dye while DR is the rate constant or simply the degradation rate of the photocatalytic reaction. The solution of Equation (2) is given by: where is initial dye concentration and t is irradiation time.…”

“…These examples are made with solutions which have as-synthesized concentration of ZnO (mass concentration % ) and initial amount of dye which corresponds to dye photoabsorbance maximum A0 = 2 (in an equivalent amount of pure water). Photocatalytic degradation rates were calculated using pseudo-first order reaction rate model, described in [37,38], using the formula:…”

“…Photocatalytic degradation rates were calculated using pseudo-first order reaction rate model, described in [37,38], using the formula:…”

Photocatalytic Transformations of 1H-Benzotriazole and Benzotriazole Derivates

“…The application of a 0.8 V bias promoted an increase of the BTz degradation mainly minimizing the recombination process between the valence band holes (h + vb ) and conduction band electrons (e − cb ) [ 24 ]. Moreover, TiO 2 functionalized with magnetic activated carbon (Fe II Fe 2 III O 4 @C) [ 25 ] and Cu-modified nanoporous TiO 2 [ 26 ] were both proposed for the removal of BTz from aqueous phase under irradiation. Alternatively, semiconductors different from titanium dioxide have been proposed for the same aim (e.g., CuMoO 4 [ 27 ] and BiOI [ 28 ] under visible light and BiOBr under simulated solar irradiation [ 29 ]).…”