Visible-light photocatalytic decolorization of reactive brilliant red X-3B on Cu2O/crosslinked-chitosan nanocomposites prepared via one step process

Abstract Cu 2 O/crosslinked-chitosan nanocomposites (Cu 2 O/CS NCs) were in situ prepared via a simple one-step liquid phase precipitation–reduction process and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, BET, XPS and UV–vis/DRS. The characterization results showed that Cu 2 O/CS NCs were almost similar spherical or ellipsoidal and the surface was rough and porous because Cu 2 O particle was wrapped in chitosan. The chitosan layer was especially favorable for improving the adsorption ability of dye and molecular oxygen and restraining the recombination of electrons–holes pair. The visible-light photocatalytic decolorization behavior on Cu 2 O/CS NCs was evaluated using reactive brilliant red X-3B (X-3B) as a model pollutant. The influences of various experimental factors on X-3B decolorization were investigated. It was found that the photocatalytic decolorization process on Cu 2 O/CS NCs followed apparent pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The dye X-3B could be decolorized more efficiently in acidic media than in alkaline media. Cu 2 O/CS NCs exhibited enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity compared with other photocatalysts reported before under similar experimental conditions.