Photocatalytic oxidation of organic dyes with visible-light-driven codoped TiO2 photocatalysts

A novel copper (II) and zinc (II) codoped TiO₂ photocatalyst was synthesized by a modified sol-gel method using titanium (IV) isopropoxide, Zn(NO₃)₂ · 6H₂O and copper(Il) nitrate as precursors. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photo-luminescence spectra (PL). The XRD results showed undoped and Zn, Cu-codoped TiO₂ nanoparticles mainly including anatase phase and a tiny amount of Zn- and Cu-oxides exist in the mixed system, which is attributed to the decomposition of copper and zinc nitrates in the TiO₂ gel to form CuO and ZnO and randomly dispersed on the TiO₂ surface. On the basis of the optical characterization results, we found that the codoping of copper (II) and zinc (II) resulted a red shift of adsorption and lower recombination probability between electrons and holes, which were the reasons for high photocatalytic activity of Zn, Cu-codoped TiO₂ nanoparticles under visible light (λ > 400 nm). The photocatalytic activity of samples was tested for degradation of methyl orange (MO) in solutions. The results indicated that the visible-light driven capability of the codoped catalyst were much higher than that of the pure TiO₂ catalyst under visible irradiation. Because of the synergetic effect of copper (II) and zinc (II) element, the Zn, Cu-codoped TiO₂ catalyst will show higher quantum yield and enhance absorption of visible light. In the end, a key mechanism was proposed in order to account for the enhanced activity.