Photocatalytic Behaviour of Copper Doped and Copper-Thiourea Codoped TiO2 Nanoparticles on Rhodamine B Dye Under Solar Light Irradiation

A Nixon Thangaraj, C Ravi Samu

Abstract

TiO2 nanoparticles (TNPs) doped with copper and thiourea was prepared through sol-gel method and characterized using diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy, FT-IR, XRD and EDX. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized photocatalysts was tested on the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye in aqueous medium under solar light radiation. Influence of various operational parameters such as initial concentration, dose of photocatalyst and irradiation time of RhB dye on the photodegradation reaction was investigated to achieve maximum degradation efficiency. The optimum condition for the degradation of the dye has been evaluated. Further, from the results it has been found that doping of TNPs with copper and thiourea plays a vital role for enhancing the removal of RhB dye. A suitable mechanism has been proposed and discussed in order to explain the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized photocatalysts.