Contrastive study of structure and photocatalytic performance with three-dimensionally ordered macroporous CuO–TiO2 and CuO/TiO2

Abstract To study the effects of combination way of CuO and TiO2 on their structure and catalytic properties, two three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) materials CuO–TiO2 and CuO/TiO2 were prepared. The morphology, composition and structure of the prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, N2 adsorption, XPS, and UV-VIS DRS. SEM and N2 adsorption analysis indicate that the effect of the existence form of CuO on morphology and pore structure is very tiny. XRD, HRTEM, XPS characterizations show that the existence forms of CuO for the two samples (CuO–TiO2 and CuO/TiO2) are mainly constitutive of skeleton CuO and surface CuO, respectively. UV-VIS DRS indicates that the CuO–TiO2 sample show broader visible light response region and narrower band gap than those of the CuO/TiO2 sample. These findings reveal that the appearance of skeleton CuO promote the efficiencies of light harvest and charge carrier separation, ultimately enhancing the photodecoloration performance of MB.