Open AccessGenerating oxygen vacancies in Cu 2+ ‐doped TiO 2 hollow spheres for enhanced photocatalytic activity and antimicrobial activity
Author(s) -
Zhang Hongguang,
Wang Meng,
Xu Feng
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
micro and nano letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1750-0443
DOI - 10.1049/mnl.2019.0781
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , methyl orange , anatase , materials science , doping , hydrothermal circulation , nuclear chemistry , antibacterial activity , raman spectroscopy , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , chemistry , bacteria , catalysis , organic chemistry , optics , physics , biology , genetics , optoelectronics , engineering
Developing cheap photocatalysts with highly visible‐light activity is greatly desired for environmental pollution treatment. In this work, the authors designed and synthesised Cu 2+ ‐doped TiO 2 (Cu‐TiO 2 ) hollow spheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity and antimicrobial activity using a simple hydrothermal process. The X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD) results revealed that Cu‐TiO 2 hollow spheres were anatase crystal phase. The Cu 2+ ‐doped into TiO 2 can be confirmed by XRD, Raman spectra, and UV–Vis spectrum. The photocatalytic activity of Cu‐TiO 2 samples was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange. Comparing to the undoped TiO 2 , 6% Cu‐TiO 2 sample exhibited remarkably high photocatalytic towards methyl orange under simulated sunlight irradiation, which was attributed to the fact that copper ion doping produced numerous oxygen vacancies (V O ) in the material. In addition, it also showed improved antibacterial properties against both Gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus ( S.aureus ) and Gram‐negative Escherichia coli ( E.coli ) bacteria. These results establish that Cu 2+ doping can obviously improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO 2 under simulated sunlight.