Photodegradation of thiophene over ZrO2-SiO2 nanoparticles: impact of copper decoration on their photocatalytic activity

A sol-gel technique was useful for the synthesis of zirconia-silica nanoparticles. Metallic copper has decorated zirconia-silica nanoparticles via photo-assisted deposition method, decorated copper mass percent was varied from 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 wt%. XRD results confirm that decoration of zirconia-silica nanoparticles by copper did not alert XRD pattern of zirconia-silica nanoparticles and there are no peaks for copper or copper oxide, due to high dispersion of copper above a surface of zirconia-silica nanoparticles. The decoration of zirconia-silica nanoparticles by copper was reduced band gap energy of zirconia-silica nanoparticles from 3.20 to 2.35 eV with 1.5 wt% Cu decoration. Photocatalytic oxidation of thiophene in presence of visible light was selected to measure the impact of metallic copper on photocatalytic activity of zirconia-silica nanoparticles. 1.5 wt% Cu-decorated zirconia-silica nanoparticles can degrade 100% of thiophene within 90 min.