Cu2O/Ag co-deposited TiO2 nanotube array film prepared by pulse-reversing voltage and photocatalytic properties

Abstract

In this experiment, Cu2O/Ag co-deposition TiO2 nanotube array (Cu2O-Ag-TNT) film was prepared on pure Ti substrate with the method of combining anodic oxidation and electrodeposition by pulse-reversing voltage power supply in the electrolyte of NH4F, ethylene glycol, CuNO3 · 3H2O and AgNO3. The morphology, phase, chemical composition, photocatalytic property and mechanism of the nanotube array film were studied by means of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra, photoluminescence and photocatalytic degradation under visible light. The results showed that the depositional Cu2O and Ag existed in two forms, being the small-particle dispersion and large-particle sedimentary phase in the nanotube arrays: Cu2O-Ag-TNTs for different doping amounts of Ag could be prepared by adjusting the concentration of AgNO3 and the reverse voltages; with changing of the doping amount of Ag, the band gap and photo-generated electron–hole pair recombination rate also changed, and under the conditions of annealing and the optimized process parameter, the band gap of the nanotube arrays narrowed 0.49 eV and the rate of electron and pair recombination decreased noticeably; the nanotube array film for the concentration of 0.5 cm2 ml−1 degraded the methylene blue of 8 mg L−1, and the degradation rate reached above 98%. The co-deposition Cu2O-Ag-TNT film prepared by the one-step method performed well in the field of photocatalysis under visible light.