Synthesis and characterization of porous clay heterostructure intercalated with CuO nanoparticles as a visible light-driven photocatalyst

This study reports on the preparation and characterization of porous clay heterostructure (PCH) as a high-surface area support for CuO nanoparticles (NPs)-based photocatalyst for the preferential oxidation of methylene blue under visible light in the absence of H2O2. CuO NPs were incorporated in PCH by thermal decomposition method. The new photocatalyst was characterized by DRS, XRD, FT-IR, nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements and TEM. The results revealed that PCH acts as a host material for spherical CuO NPs with particles size less than 10 nm. The powder X-ray diffraction indicated that PCH contained both MMT clay and MCM-41 and MCM-41 located at the interlayers space of MMT clay. The DRS demonstrated the presence of CuO, Cu2O and Cu NPs in PCH. The synthesized material (CuO–PCH) was a visible light-driven photocatalyst for degradation of MB dye. The photocatalyst demonstrated 94% removal efficiency for MB dye under visible light after 60 min. Kinetics studies showed that the reaction rate constants of CuO–PCH were approximately 1.8, 2.4 and 3.4 times higher than the apparent reaction rate constant of CuO–MMT, CuO–MCM-41 and CuO, respectively. The mechanism of separation of the photogenerated electrons and holes of the CuO–PCH nanocomposite was discussed.