Photocatalytic performance of Cu-doped TiO 2 nanofibers treated by the hydrothermal synthesis and air-thermal treatment

Ming Chung Wu*, Po Yeh Wu, Ting-Han Lin, Tz Feng Lin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

97 Scopus citations

Abstract

Series of transition metal-doped TiO 2 (metal/TiO 2 ) is prepared by combining the hydrothermal synthesis and air-thermal treatment without any reduction process. The selected transition metal precursors, including Ag, Au, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pd, Pt, Y, and Zn, were individually doped into TiO 2 nanofibers to evaluate the photocatalytic degradation activity and photocatalytic hydrogen generation. Consider the photocatalytic performance of these synthesized metal/TiO 2 under UV-A irradiation, copper doped TiO 2 nanofibers (Cu/TiO 2 NFs) was chosen for further study due to its extraordinary reactivity. Systematical studies were spread to optimize the doping concentration and the calcination condition for much higher photocatalytic activity Cu/TiO 2 NFs. In the photocatalytic degradation test, 0.5 mol%-Cu/TiO 2 NFs calcined at 650 °C exhibits the highest activity, which is even higher than commercial TiO 2 -AEROXIDE ® TiO 2 P25 under UV-A irradiation. The synthesized 0.5 mol%-Cu/TiO 2 -650 NFs also have the capability in the photocatalytic hydrogen production. The hydrogen evolution rates are 200 μmol/g·h under UV-A irradiation and 280 μmol/g·h under UV-B irradiation. The density of state calculated by CASTEP for Cu/TiO 2 indicates that Cu doping contributes to the states near valence band edge and narrows the band gap. The disclosed process in this study is industrial safe, convenient and cost-effective. We further produce a significant amount of TiO 2 -based catalysts without any hydrogen reduction treatment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)390-398
Number of pages9
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume430
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 02 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Hydrogen evolution
  • Metal ion doping
  • Nanofiber morphology
  • Phase transition
  • Photocatalysis
  • TiO

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