Visible light degradation of textile effluent using nanostructured TiO2/Ag/CuO photocatalysts

TiO2, Ag and CuO nanomaterials, and nanostructured TiO2/Ag/CuO photocatalytic materials coupled in different weight percentages were synthesized. The prepared materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Photocatalytic degrading capabilities of the pure, as well as the nanostructured TiO2/Ag/CuO photocatalytic materials were tested on the dye effluent collected from the textile industries. The samples collected during the photocatalytic degradation of textile dye effluent were studied with UV-Vis spectroscopy. The nanostructured TiO2/Ag/CuO photocatalyst with the composition of 80:10:10 weight percentage exhibited remarkable performance. Coupling of Ag metal nanoparticles and narrow bandgap CuO semiconductor nanomaterial to the wide bandgap TiO2 semiconductor nanomaterial was found to modify the operative bandgap of the system and generate electron-hole pairs under visible light irradiation. The coupled TiO2/Ag/CuO system facilitates improved electron transfer to the adsorbed molecules, and thus the system improves the photocatalytic degradation of dyes by enhanced redox mechanism.