Copper plasmon-induced Cu-doped ZnO-CuO double-nanoheterojunction: In-situ combustion synthesis and photo-decontamination of textile effluents

Super-porous plasmon-induced Cu-doped ZnO-CuO photocatalysts were synthesized via a facile combustion method at various fuel/nitrate ratios. The samples were characterized by XRD, FESEM, PDS, TGA, FTIR, DRS, PL, EDX and BET-BJH. The photocatalytic performance of the samples was investigated in the degradation of methylene. The results showed that an increase of fuel ratio from 0.5 to 2 enhanced the photocatalytic degradation of the dye. XRD results indicated the formation of Cu-doped ZnO-CuO as well as the metallic Cu phases. According to DRS analysis, the increasing of fuel/nitrate ratio promoted the visible light absorption due to the surface plasmon resonance originating from Cu particles and enhancing harvest of the light with effective energy thereby existing macro-porous structure. Moreover, PL analysis revealed the recombination decline of charge carriers in p-CuZnO-CuO (FR = 2.0) compared to the pure ZnO. The photocatalytic performance tests reflected the photocatalytic activity of 92.1 % for p-CuZnO-CuO (FR = 2.0) after 120 min irradiation.