Abstract
According to statistics, early in the 20th century, the proportion of positive and negative air ions on the earth is 1 : 1.2. However, after more than one century, the equilibrium state of the proportion had an obvious change, which the proportion of positive and negative air ions became 1.2 : 1, leading to a surrounding of positive air ions in human living environment. Therefore, it is urgent to adopt effective methods to improve the proportion of negative oxygen ions, which are known as “air vitamin”. In this study, negative oxygen ions production by the TiO2/Cu2O-treated wood under UV irradiation was first reported. Anatase TiO2 particles with Cu2O particles were doped on wooden substrates through a two-step method and further modification is employed to create remarkable superamphiphobic surface. The effect of Cu2O particles dopant on the negative oxygen ions production of the TiO2-treated wood was investigated. The results showed that the production of negative oxygen ions was drastically improved by doping with Cu2O particles under UV irradiation. The wood modified with TiO2/Cu2O composite film after hydrophobization is imparted with superamphiphobicity, antibacterial actions against Escherichia coli, and negative oxygen ions production under UV irradiation.
Highlights
Nowadays, with the development of social and economic and the improvement of living standards, the human health awareness is growing
The treatment at high temperature and the rough TiO2/Cu2O grains would significantly increase the water-repellent properties of the surfaces; (b) After modification with FAS-17, the amphiphilic wood surface transformed into superamphiphobic one with the Water contact angles (WCAs) of 158.6° and OCA of 154.3°; (c) The step-wise energy band structure facilitated the photogenerated electrons from the conduction band of Cu2O were captured by Ti4+ ions in TiO2 while promoted Ti4+ ions further to reduce to Ti3+ ions
The energy stored in the Ti3+, may promote a trapping of electrons leading to produce negative oxygen ions under the natural conditions.; (d) The introduction of Cu2O significantly improved the photocatalysis efficiency of the TiO2-treated wood, so that the air including negative oxygen ions produced by the hydrophobized TiO2/Cu2O-treated wood after UV irradiation is up to the standard of the fresh air; (e) Compared with the pure
Summary
With the development of social and economic and the improvement of living standards, the human health awareness is growing. When TiO2 semiconductor materials with the forbidden bandgap of 3.2 eV are irradiated by light consisting of wavelengths shorter than 415 nm, the electron-hole pairs are produced after the migration of electrons. In order to suppress the recombination of the electron and the hole and enhance the migration of charges, much attention has been focused on the modification of TiO2 by adding metal ions or oxides[12,13,14]. The wood decorated with TiO2/Cu2O composite film after hydrophobization might be imparted with superamphiphobicity, antibacterial actions against Escherichia coli, and negative oxygen ions production under UV irradiation. The mechanism of the negative oxygen ions production on TiO2/Cu2O-treated wood under UV irradiation was discussed in the paper
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