Preparation and Photocatalytic Performance of Hollow Spherical TiO2/Cu2O Composites

The anatase phase titanium dioxide sols were prepared by hydrothermal method using titanium sulfate as the titanium source. Copper acetate monohydrate was used as the copper source, cubic phase Cu 2 O with matched bandgap TiO 2 was introduced to synthesize hollow spherical nano-TiO 2 /Cu 2 O composites by precipitation method. The powder samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), specific surface area testing (BET), X-ray electron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet and visible spectrophotometry (UV–Vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy analysis using methyl orange (MO) solution as indicator. The results showed that the introduction of Cu 2 O did not affect the physical phase of TiO 2 . Titanium dioxide was a shuttle-shaped nanorod with an average particle size less than 20 nm, Cu 2 O was a sphere with an average particle size greater than 400 nm. TiO 2 loading results in smaller particle size, larger specific surface area, thinner spherical walls, increased hollowness, and improved adsorption and photocatalytic properties of spherical Cu 2 O. The optimum Ti content of TiO 2 /Cu 2 O nanocomposite was 4.0 wt.%, the maximum specific surface area of TiO 2 /Cu 2 O sample was 90.57 m 2 /g with particle size less than 150 nm. When TiO 2 /Cu 2 O sample with Ti content of 4.0 wt.% was used as photocatalyst, the adsorption effect was 66.2% under the dark reaction at 60 min, the degradation effect was 91.2% under visible light irradiation at 120 min. The adsorption and photocatalytic performance were excellent when the TiO 2 /Cu 2 O sample with Ti content of 4.0 wt.% was used as the photocatalyst. This work provides an effective method for photocatalytic treatment of waste liquids.