Visible-light driven γ-Al2O3, CuO and γ-Al2O3/CuO nanocatalysts: Synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract

• A facile γ-Al 2 O 3 /CuO nanocatalyst were developed via hydrothermal process for enhance photocatalytic activity. • The degradation efficiency achieved to be 91% and 78% decomposition of MB and RhB dyes under visible light irradiation. • The higher photocatalytic performance was obtained due to efficient separation of the photo-induced electron-hole pairs and effective electron–hole generation. A novel and facile γ-Al 2 O 3 /CuO nanocomposites (NC S ) was fabricated via a hydrothermal technique for Visible light mediated photocatalytic activity. The synthesized samples of pure γ-Al 2 O 3 , CuO and γ-Al 2 O 3 /CuO NCs were analyzed using XRD, UV-DRS, PL, FT-IR, BET, and FESEM analysis techniques. The as prepared γ-Al 2 O 3 , CuO and γ-Al 2 O 3 /CuO catalysts were used to degrade Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methylene Blue (MB) textile dyes, which were studied using photocatalytic experiments. The degradation took place in the presence of visible light illumination. The degradation efficiency of γ-Al 2 O 3 , CuO, and γ-Al 2 O 3 /CuO nanocomposites for RhB and MB dyes was 52 %, 59 %, 78 %, and 65 %, 73 %, 91 %, respectively. The higher degradation efficiency was achieved by using γ-Al 2 O 3 /CuO nanocatalysts due to their efficient increase in photo-induced e - /h + charge separation and diminishes their charge carrier re-coupling factor.