Preparation, characterization and visible photocatalytic activity of CuBi2O4 photocatalyst by a novel sol-gel method

Spinel CuBi2O4 was synthesized by a novel sol-gel method at 600 A degrees C. Crystallographic and morphological characterizations of prepared samples have been carried out using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope. The results indicate that the sample prepared at 600 A degrees C has the structure of spinel CuBi2O4 with average crystallite size around hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers. The UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra show that the sample has good absorption ability in the wavelength range of 300-800 nm. The results of photocatalytic experiments show that the photocatalysts exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity for methylene blue dye solution in the presence of a trace amount of H2O2 under visible light irradiation. The 1 h degradation value of CuBi2O4 is 90 %, which is much higher than the reference Degussa P25. The high degradation value after five times using shows that CuBi2O4 can be promising candidate for the photocatalytic degradation of dyes.