Photocatalytic Removal of Food Colorant E 131 VF from synthetic wastewater by Cu Doped TiO2 Samples

In this work, we studied the effect of various amounts (0.2-1.2 % mole ratio) of Cu doping to TiO2 nanoparticles (Cu/TiO2) on the photocatalytic removal efficiency of the food colorant E 131 VF. Two series of doped TiO2 (P25) photocatalysts were prepared in two different media (50%ethanol-50%acetone and 5% surfactant (Tween 20)-95%H2O) by using the impregnation method. The prepared samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, Raman, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and SEM/EDX analyses. The XRD results showed that the crystal dimension of TiO2 increased from 23 to 35 nm and rutile/anatase ratio decreased from 16% to 9% after Cu doping in two different media. The photoactivity of TiO2 was reduced in the presence of Cu even at low molar ratio. The photocatalytic degradation rate constant of TiO2 (P25) was 0.24 (au) but it decreased to 0.015 (au) in the presence of the sample containing 0.6% Cu. Several reasons were suggested to explain the dramatic decrease in the activity of the prepared Cu/TiO2samples.