Meso-macroporous Fe-doped CuO: Synthesis, characterization, and structurally enhanced adsorption and visible-light photocatalytic activity

The meso-macroporous Fe-doped CuO was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method combined with post-annealing. The samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller N-2 adsorption-desorption analyses and UV-vis diffuses reflectance spectroscopy. The Fe-doped CuO sample shows higher adsorption capacity and photocatalytic activity for xanthate degradation than pure CuO under visible light irradiation. In addition, the adsorption process is found to fit Langmuir isotherms and pseudo-second-order kinetics. The the first order kinetic Langmuir Hinshelwood model was used to study the reaction kinetics of photocatalytic degradation, and the apparent rate constant ( k ) was calculated. The value of k for Fe-doped CuO is 1.5 times that of pure CuO. The higher photocatalytic activity of Fe-doped CuO is attributed to higher specific surface area together with stronger visible light absorption.