Modification of titanium dioxide nanoparticles with copper oxide co-catalyst for photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

Abstract

2,4 - dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4 - D) is a common herbicide that has been used widely. Due to its excessive usage, the 2,4 - D herbicides can cause contamination over agricultural land and water bodies. In the present work, a simple impregnation method was used to modify the commercial titanium dioxide (P25 TiO 2 ) nanoparticles with the copper oxide. The prepared samples were characterized by X - ray Diffraction (XRD), reflectance UV - visible and fluorescence spectroscopies. It was observed that the incorporation of copper oxide did not significantly affect the crystal structure of P25 TiO 2 . On the other hand, the pre sence of copper oxide was confirmed by reflectance UV - visible and fluorescence spectroscopies. The activity of the prepared sample was evaluated for photocatalytic removal of the 2,4 - D. The photocatalytic activity of the TiO 2 increased with the increase of copper oxide loading up to 0.5 mol%. Unfortunately, the higher loading amount of copper oxide resulted in the lower photocatalytic activity. This study suggested that the higher photocatalytic activities obtained on the low loading samples were due to the lower electron - hole recombination.