A Novel CuO-TiO2 Composite Photocatalyst and its Degradation of Methyl Orange under UV Irradiation
A novel CuO-TiO2 composite photocatalyst was prepared by a redox process coupling with sol-gel method. The morphology and structure of the as-prepared samples were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Photocatalytic activity of the CuO-TiO2 composite photocatalyst was evaluated in terms of the degradation of Methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. The results show that the as-prepared composite consisted of monoclinic-phase CuO-nanotubes and TiO2 nanoparticles, in which TiO2 nanoparticles were dramatically decorated on the CuO-nanotubes, exhibits a high catalytic activity to decolorize MO. According to the experimental results, 1.27wt % was the optimal loading for CuO-doped TiO2 photocatalyst.