Investigation of high-performance Cu-oxide/black TiO2; heterojunction photocatalytic fabricated by pulsed anodization on the Cu-foam

Cu-foam has been modified to perform as a 3D heterojunction Cu-oxide /black TiO2 photocatalyst due to its high surface area in the filtration of color wastewater and antibacterial properties. Cu-oxide is fabricated by a novel anodizing method with a pulsed current directly on the Cu-foam in the NaOH electrolyte. A sol spinning coat and calcination conduct the black TiO2 part of the photocatalyst under an argon atmosphere. The degradation by methylene blue (MB) and antibacterial tests was used to evaluate the prepared samples' photocatalytic activity. The surface topography, phase, and element composition of the Cu-oxide/black TiO2 coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), (FE-SEM), grazing X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (TIR), and BET. Results revealed that the pulsed current anodizing of Cu-foam and sol-gel calcined under argon flow leads to the formation of Cu2O with octahedral microstructure and black TiO2. The ability to decompose 79.93 % of methylene blue during 60 min, antibacterial activity equal to 99.89 % for E-coli bacteria, and an energy gap of 2 eV for the sample made of octahedral oxides of Cu2O and blackTiO2 indicate more energy absorption and excellent photocatalytic ability in this 3D heterojunction photocatalyst.