Hydrothermal Synthesis of Copper-Decorated Titanium Dioxide Spherulites and their Photocatalytic Activity against Reactive Dyes

Abstract

The untreated discharge of industrial dyes into water supplies is a likely occurrence that can cause a number of dangerous scenarios that are hazardous for the ecology. Herein, a simple hydrothermal strategy for synthesizing copper-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Cu-TiO₂) were presented and investigated its ability to photocatalytically degrade dyes e.g. reactive black 5 (RB5), red 198 (RR198) and yellow 145 dyes (RY145). Firstly, the as-synthesized Cu-TiO₂ nanoparticles were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), UV-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), high resolution-scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Furthermore, the photocatalysis experiments were conducted using three reactive dye solutions at different concentrations, pH, duration, etc. The spherulitic Cu-TiO₂ photocatalyst exhibited superior catalytic activity against the dyes and was able to achieve 82, 88 and 90% efficiencies for RB5, RR198 and RY145 dyes, respectively. The kinetics and the reusability parameters were also elaborated with respect to the obtained results. Therefore, Cu-TiO₂ spherulites are professed to be effectual photocatalyst materials for industrial scale dye degradation.