Enhanced photocatalytic activity of TiO2/SiO2 by the influence of Cu-doping under reducing calcination atmosphere

Abstract Cu-doped titania photocatalyst supported on silica beads (Cu-TiO 2 /SiO 2 ) were prepared under different Cu-ion concentration and under different calcination atmosphere. The properties and performance of Cu-TiO 2 /SiO 2 were compared with undoped TiO 2 /SiO 2 photocatalyst. The effect of Cu-doping and calcination atmosphere on photocatalytic degradation of phenol under both black light and visible light irradiation were investigated, where in both cases the degradation rate of phenol by Cu-doped catalyst prepared under reducing calcination atmosphere was found to be higher than the undoped catalyst or Cu-doped catalyst prepared under air atmosphere. This may be attributed to increase in visible light absorption and lengthening of photogenerated electron–hole pair recombination time. The photocatalytic beads were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and SEM/EDAX analysis.