Improvement of the photocatalytic activity of cupric oxide by deposition onto a natural clinoptilolite substrate

CuO was loaded onto clinoptilolite particles and used in the photodegradation of benzene-1,2-diamine (BD) under UV irradiation. The photocatalyst was prepared by ion exchanging of parent natural clinoptilolite with copper(II) sulfate aqueous solution (0.4 mol L−1) for 20 h followed by drying and calcination at 450 °C for 8 h. Raw and modified samples were characterized by XRD, SEM–EDAX, DRS and BET methods. The degradation extents were evaluated by UV–vis absorption spectrophotometric, chemical Oxygen demand (COD) and HPLC methods. The primary objective was to determine the optimal conditions for experimental parameters which were obtained as: 2.0 g L−1 of the photocatalyst, 20 mg L−1 of benzene-1,2-diamine, pH 6.0 and 43 mmol L−1 of H2O2. The degradation process obeyed first-order kinetics.