PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZnO/CuO SEMICONDUCTOR AND PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY ON THE DECOLORIZATION OF DIRECT RED 80 AZODYE
Zinc oxide, an n-type semiconductor, has been used as photocatalyst for contaminated water purification by organic compounds. The addition of a p-type semiconductor as copper oxide could increase the catalytic efficiency through the p-n junction in order to decrease the electron-hole recombination. In this work, zinc and copper oxides containing 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 % of copper were prepared by manual grinding, followed by heat treatment at 300°C during 5 h. The zinc oxide and copper oxide mixture as well as their precursors were characterized by x-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray fluorescence. The photocatalytic efficiency was verified by the direct red 80 tetraazodye decolorization using UV radiation under pseudo-first order conditions at natural pH (7.5-8.0) and 30 °C. The highest photocatalytic activity occurred to the semiconductor containing 1.0 % copper oxide, whose decolorization rate constant was equivalent to 6.40×10-2 min-1, that is, 17.4 % larger in comparison to ZnO, 5.45×10-2 min-1.
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sociedad Chilena de Química
2015
|
| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-97072015000400022 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|