Sono-synthesis of Nanocomposite (TiO۲- Cu۲O) and Their Ap plication in Degrad ation of S urfactants from Aqueous Sol ution by Sunlight

Water pollution caused by synthetic surfa ctants has b een increasing during the past few years due t o their extensive use in household , industry, and etc. [۱]. Releasin g detergent s into environmental lead to signific ant effects due to theirs toxicity and hinder from the dissolution of atm ospheric oxygen into natural waters and the sedimentation of floating particles [۱]. Hence, great atten tion has be en paid on their efficient degradation. Different methods su ch as biode gradation, o zonation, and ultrasound have been reported to their decomposition [۲]. But, they h ave some d isadvantage s such as e nhancing f oam formati on, resisting to degradation, using of expensive energy sources, and f orming by-products with higher toxicity [۱, ۲]. For this re ason, photoassisted des truction would be desir able to com pletely elim inate surfactants from the effluents and the opportunity for solar light u tilization.Cu۲O is a fascin ating material with ide al band gap energy (۲.۰ eV) [۳] in the solar cells, photo catalysis a nd etc. H owever, its photocatalytic activity is limited because of recombination of the hole and electron. In order to i mprove the photo-effici ency and enhance its catalytic properties, it has b een combined with oth er materials such as TiO۲ [۳].In this study, a method has develop ed to prod uce TiO۲–C u۲O nano-composite under ultras ound in order to exploit the maximum optical ab sorption in the visible range and inc rease the highest photocatalytic ef ficiency for the degradation and m ineralization of the sel ected detergent.in addition easier workup better control in preparation of nano-coposite can be considered as advantageous of this study.

کلیدواژه ها:

TiO۲–Cu۲O nanoc omposite ، U ltrasound ، Visible light ، Detergent ، degradation