Enhancement photoactivity of CuO-doped YVO4 nanocomposites toward degradation of Atrazine herbicide under visible illumination

Abstract

Herbicide photocatalytic oxidation across nanostructured semiconductor-based photocatalysts demonstrated an appropriate strategy for controlling the resulting environmental problems. Developing a recyclable and efficacious photocatalyst is a challenge to overcome the semiconductor defects like instability and quick recombination. A series of CuO-YVO4 nanocomposites with different concentrations of CuO were synthesized by the surfactant sol–gel method. The different characterization techniques approved the structures and morphology of the as-prepared nanocomposites. The Atrazine degradation in water under illumination with visible light was used to assess the photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized CuO-YVO4 nanocomposites. It demonstrates that combining CuO nanoparticles (NPs) can significantly enhance the photocatalytic activity of YVO4. The full photooxidation of Atrazine was achieved over 1.6 g/L of 15 wt% CuO-YVO4 with an outstanding rate constant of 0.0518 min−1 about 51.8 times greater than that in pristine YVO4 (0.001 min−1) and keeping recyclability of 96.5%. The maximal photodegradation efficiency of 15 wt% CuO-YVO4 is likely relevant to suppressing charge recombination with enhanced light harvesting. The Atrazine photocatalytic degradation mechanism was suggested. The results of this research will pave the way for the widespread application of oxide-vanadate semiconductor photocatalysts for the photocatalytic oxidation of herbicide contaminates in water under visible illumination.