Hydrothermal Synthesis of Copper-Decorated Titanium Dioxide Spherulites and their Photocatalytic Activity against Reactive Dyes

Hydrothermal Synthesis of Copper-Decorated Titanium Dioxide Spherulites and their Photocatalytic Activity against Reactive Dyes G.K. Sendil Department of Chemistry, Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai-600117, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9736-7145 E. Soundarrajan Department of Chemistry, Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai-600117, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0295-5834 M. Roselin Ranjitha Department of Chemistry, Stella Maris College (Autonomous) (Affiliated to University of Madras), Chennai-600086, India https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2050-5551 R.A. Klaivani Department of Chemistry, Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai-600117, India https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4745-4651 S. Raghu Centre for Advanced Research and Development (CARD)/Chemistry, Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai-600117, India https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5348-5353

The untreated discharge of industrial dyes into water supplies is a likely occurrence that can cause a number of dangerous scenarios that are hazardous for the ecology. Herein, a simple hydrothermal strategy for synthesizing copper-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Cu-TiO2) were presented and investigated its ability to photocatalytically degrade dyes e.g. reactive black 5 (RB5), red 198 (RR198) and yellow 145 dyes (RY145). Firstly, the as-synthesized Cu-TiO2 nanoparticles were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), UV-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), high resolution-scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Furthermore, the photocatalysis experiments were conducted using three reactive dye solutions at different concentrations, pH, duration, etc. The spherulitic Cu-TiO2 photocatalyst exhibited superior catalytic activity against the dyes and was able to achieve 82, 88 and 90% efficiencies for RB5, RR198 and RY145 dyes, respectively. The kinetics and the reusability parameters were also elaborated with respect to the obtained results. Therefore, Cu-TiO2 spherulites are professed to be effectual photocatalyst materials for industrial scale dye degradation.