Efficient photocatalysis of Cu doped TiO2/g-C3N4 for the photodegradation of methylene blue

The release of dyes into normal water reservoirs has become a tremendous environmental problem and the development of methods to remove such dyes is essential. A novel photocatalyst was fabricated in which Cu doped to TiO2 was coupled with g-C3N4 (Cu-TiO2/g-C3N4) in different weight percentages as 10, 30 and 50%, hydrothermally. Pure TiO2 consisted of both Anatase and Rutile phases where slight lattice distortions were observed in the Cu-doped TiO2 as evidenced by the XRD and Raman analysis. Cu was present at 1.7% by weight respective to TiO2 according to the XRF analysis. Spherical and irregularly shaped aggregated Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles in the range of 15–55 nm were heterogeneously distributed on the g-C3N4 matrix as observed by TEM and SEM. The band gap of TiO2 (3.0 eV) was reduced to 2.67 upon doping with Cu. The band gap of g-C3N4 was found to be 2.81 eV and that of Cu-TiO2/g-C3N4 in different weight percentages were in the range of 2.82 to 2.88 eV. Synthesized photocatalysts were tested on the ability to degrade methylene blue under UV and Visible light. Cu-TiO2/50% g-C3N4 showed the highest rate constant (4.4 × 10-3 min−1) which is 5 and 9.8 times greater than TiO2 and g-C3N4, respectively. The rate constant decreased with the introduction of EDTA and Isopropyl alcohol as they scavenge holes and hydroxyl radicals, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of all the nanomaterials increased with the increasing concentration of persulfate due to the increasing concentration of SO4●- and OH● produced. Synthesized nanomaterials effectively adsorb methylene blue under dark conditions following the pseudo-second-order kinetics suggesting that methylene blue molecules were chemisorbed to the adsorbents. The adsorption rate constant resulting in the best-performing photocatalyst was 0.122 g mg−1 min−1. Hence, it is evident that Cu-TiO2/g-C3N4 can effectively degrade methylene blue.