Photocatalytic activity of Cu doped TiO2 nanoparticles and comparison of two main doping procedures

In this reported work, TiO₂ nanoparticles containing anatase-rutile and pure rutile phases were prepared by sol-gel and hydrolysis in acidic solution methods, respectively. Two general procedures, doping during synthesis (DDS) via a hydrolysis method and doping on the provided TiO₂ nanoparticles (DOP) that is performed by the impregnation method have been studied by doping copper to these nanoparticles. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photodegradation of C.I. Acid Red 27 as a model contaminant. The prepared samples were characterised by X-ray diffraction, atomic absorption flame emission spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It is found that the photosensitised degradation activity can be enhanced by doping an appropriate amount of Cu. Photocatalytic activity results indicated that samples that have been doped by the DDS procedure show higher photocatalytic efficiency than samples doped by the DOP procedure.