title: Copper NPs decorated titania: A novel synthesis by high energy US with a study of the photocatalytic activity under visible light.
abstract: The most important drawback of the use of TiO2 as photocatalyst is its lack of activity under visible light. To overcome this problem, the surface modification of commercial micro-sized TiO2 by means of high-energy ultrasound (US), employing CuCl2 as precursor molecule to obtain both metallic copper as well as copper oxides species at the TiO2 surface, is here. We have prepared samples with different copper content, in order to evaluate its impact on the photocatalytic performances of the semiconductor, and studied in particular the photodegradation in the gas phase of some volatile organic molecules (VOCs), namely acetone and acetaldehyde. We used a LED lamp in order to have only the contribution of the visible wavelengths to the TiO2 activation (typical LED lights have no emission in the UV region). We employed several techniques (i.e., HR-TEM, XRD, FT-IR and UV-Vis) in order to characterize the prepared samples, thus evidencing different sample morphologies as a function of the various copper content, with a coherent correlation between them and the photocatalytic results. Firstly, we demonstrated the possibility to use US to modify the TiO2, even when it is commercial and micro-sized as well; secondly, by avoiding completely the UV irradiation, we confirmed that pure TiO2 is not activated by visible light. On the other hand, we showed that copper metal and metal oxides nanoparticles strongly and positively affect its photocatalytic activity.
authors.affiliation: University of Milan, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy; Consorzio INSTM, Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: marta.stucchi@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stucchi
authors.affiliation: University of Milan, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy; Consorzio INSTM, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.affiliation: University of Milan, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy; Consorzio INSTM, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pirola
authors.affiliation: University of Turin & NIS Inter-departmental Centre, Turin, Italy; Consorzio INSTM, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cerrato
authors.affiliation: University of Turin & NIS Inter-departmental Centre, Turin, Italy; Consorzio INSTM, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morandi
authors.affiliation: National Technical University of Athens, School of Chemical Engineering, 15780 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Argirusis
authors.affiliation: Clausthaler Zentrum für Materialtechnik, Agricola Str. 2, 38678 Clausthal-Zelelrfeld, Germany.
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sourkouni
authors.affiliation: CNR - Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari, Via C. Golgi 19, Milano 20133, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naldoni
authors.affiliation: GranitiFiandre SpA, Castellarano (MO), Italy.
authors.forename: Valentino
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Capucci
keywords: Copper NPs; LED; Photocatalysis; TiO(2); Ultrasound; VOC; Visible light