Photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic performance of sonochemically synthesized Cu2O@TiO2 heterojunction nanocomposites

Kulandaivelu Kaviyarasan; Victor Vinoth; Thirugnanasambandam Sivasankar; Abdullah M Asiri; Jerry J Wu; Sambandam Anandan

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.10.022

Photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic performance of sonochemically synthesized Cu₂O@TiO₂ heterojunction nanocomposites

Ultrason Sonochem. 2019 Mar:51:223-229. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.10.022. Epub 2018 Oct 18.

Authors

Kulandaivelu Kaviyarasan¹, Victor Vinoth², Thirugnanasambandam Sivasankar³, Abdullah M Asiri⁴, Jerry J Wu⁵, Sambandam Anandan⁶

Affiliations

¹ Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion Lab, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Trichy 620015, India.
² Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion Lab, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Trichy 620015, India; Laboratorio de Tecnologías Limpias, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Alonso de Ribera 2850, Concepción, Chile.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Trichy 620015, India.
⁴ The Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21413, P.O. Box 80203, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan.
⁶ Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion Lab, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Trichy 620015, India. Electronic address: sanand@nitt.edu.

PMID: 30377084
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.10.022

Abstract

Cu₂O@TiO₂ heterojunction nanocomposites were prepared via ultrasonic method towards the removal of the environmental pollutant of MO by the visible light photocatalytic approach. The structure of prepared Cu₂O@TiO₂ heterojunction nanocomposites was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, photoluminescence spectroscopy, UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy, diffused reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation ability was tested using methyl orange as a model pollutant. From the observed pseudo-first order reaction, it was clear that Cu₂O@TiO₂ nanocomposites showed enhanced photocatalytic activity (rate = 0.223 s^-1). The formation of demethylated methyl orange as an intermediate was identified from HPLC analysis at a retention time of 3.47 min. When doped with Cu₂O, the TiO₂ preserved the integrity of its structural, revealing the morphology there is no significant changes have been made, favoring photoelectrochemical appliances. In presence of illumination, the photocurrent of Cu₂O@TiO₂ was 4.5 folds greater than that of TiO₂, involving that incorporating with Cu₂O extensively enhanced mobility of electron via reducing the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs.

Keywords: Cu(2)O@TiO(2); Methyl orange; Photocatalyst; Photocurrent; Sonochemistry.