Abstract:
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a widely used material in different industries due to its long-term
photostability, economic benefits, and ability to oxidize different types of organics. However,
bare TiO2 has photocatalytic activity limitation due to wide bandgap - 3.2 eV, hence, it
absorbs only in the UV region. Therefore, it is necessary to decrease the bandgap of the TiO2
photocatalyst to increase its’ absorbance. The most promising methods can be considered
doping and surface area enlargement. In this thesis, we prepared porous Cu-doped TiO2
particles using a solvothermal method. The photodegradation efficiency of Cu-TiO2 particles
was tested by using Rhodamine B (RhB) dye pollutant and compared to a commercial P25
photocatalyst. The prepared photocatalyst has a size of 100-164 nm that is suitable for
collecting and reusability in contrast to P25 (21 nm). As the result of the lower bandgap (2.9
eV) and large surface area (~110.45 m2
/g), the degradation rate of RhB in the presence of the
Cu-TiO2 (k=0.296/min) was ~10.4% and ~ 114.5% higher compared to P25 (k=0.268/min)
and pure H2O2 (0.138/min), respectively. Overall, the main novelties of the prepared
photocatalyst are their larger size that could be useful for the reusability and mesoporous
structure that positively influence on photocatalytic activity