Silver and copper co-impregnated onto TiO2-P25 nanoparticles and its photocatalytic activity

In this work, monometallic and bimetallic silver and copper impregnated TiO2-P25 nanoparticles were prepared via impregnation method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and N2 physisorption techniques were used for the characterization of prepared nanoparticles. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated versus the removal of C.I. Acid Orange 7. Co-impregnated Ag,Cu/TiO2-P25 nanoparticles showed the highest photocatalytic activity compared to Ag/TiO2-P25, Cu/TiO2-P25 and bare TiO2-P25 nanoparticles. The optimum contents of silver and copper for the preparation of co-impregnated Ag,Cu/TiO2-P25 nanoparticles were 1 and 0.03 at. mol%, respectively. The maximum photocatalytic activity of Ag,Cu/TiO2-P25 nanoparticles was obtained for a catalyst calcined at 450 °C.