Preparation and photocatalytic performance of Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles

Abstract

Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with different doping contents from 0 to 2.0% (mole fraction) were synthesized through sol–gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) were used to characterize the crystalline structure, chemical valence states and morphology of TiO2 nanoparticles. UV–Vis absorption spectrum was used to measure the optical absorption property of the samples. The photocatalytic performance of the samples was characterized by degrading 20 mg/L methyl orange under UV–Vis irradiation. The results show that the Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles exhibit a significant increase in photocatalytic performance over the pure TiO2 nanoparticles, and the TiO2 nanoparticles doped with 1.0% Cu show the best photocatalytic performance. The improvement in photocatalytic performance is attributed to the enhanced light adsorption in UV–Vis range and the decrease of the recombination rate of photoinduced electron–hole pair of the Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles.