Preparation and photocatalytic performance of Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles

Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with different doping contents from 0 to 2.0% (mole fraction) were synthesized through sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) were used to characterize the crystalline structure, chemical valence states and morphology of TiO2 nanoparticles. UV-Vis absorption spectrum was used to measure the optical absorption property of the samples. The photocatalytic performance of the samples was characterized by degrading 20 mg/L methyl orange under UV-Vis irradiation. The results show that the Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles exhibit a significant increase in photocatalytic performance over the pure TiO2 nanoparticles, and the TiO2 nanoparticles doped with 1.0% Cu show the best photocatalytic performance. The improvement in photocatalytic performance is attributed to the enhanced light adsorption in UV-Vis range and the decrease of the recombination rate of photoinduced electron-hole pair of the Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles.