Improvement of the photocatalytic activity of cupric oxide by deposition onto a natural clinoptilolite substrate

CuO was loaded onto clinoptilolite particles and used in the photodegradation of benzene1,2-diamine (BD) under UV irradiation. The photocatalyst was prepared by ion exchanging of parent natural clinoptilolite with copper(II) sulfate aqueous solution (0.4 mol L-1) for 20 h followed by drying and calcination at 450 degrees C for 8 h. Raw and modified samples were characterized by XRD, SEM-EDAX, DRS and BET methods. The degradation extents were evaluated by UV-vis absorption spectrophotometric, chemical Oxygen demand (COD) and HPLC methods. The primary objective was to determine the optimal conditions for experimental parameters which were obtained as: 2.0 g L-1 of the photocatalyst, 20 mg L-1 of benzene-1,2-diamine, pH 6.0 and 43 mmol L-1 of H2O2. The degradation process obeyed first-order kinetics. (C) Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.