Photocatalytic activity of Cu2O/TiO2, Bi2O3/TiO2 and ZnMn2O4/TiO2 heterojunctions

Cu2O/TiO2, Bi2O3/TiO2 and ZnMn2O4/TiO2 heterojunctions were studied for potential applications in water decontamination technology and their capacity to induce an oxidation process under VIS light. UV-vis spectroscopy analysis showed that the junctions-based Cu2O, Bi2O3 and ZnMn2O4 are able to absorb a large part of visible light (respectively, up to 650, 460 and 1000 nm). This fact was confirmed in the case of Cu2O/TiO2 and Bi2O3/TiO2 by photocatalytic experiments performed under visible light. A part of the charge recombination that can take place when both semiconductors are excited was observed when a photocatalytic experiment was performed under UV-vis illumination. Orange II, 4-hydroxybenzoic and benzamide were used as pollutants in the experiment. Photoactivity of the junctions was found to be strongly dependent on the substrate. The different phenomena that were observed in each case are discussed.