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Synergistic effect of TiO2-CuWO4 on the photocatalytic degradation of atrazine

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Abstract

In this work, CuWO4 is prepared and its effect of improving photocatalytic degradation of atrazine by TiO2 as well as the synergetic mechanism is studied. Results show that the addition of CuWO4 (50 mg/L) into the reaction system can significantly enhance the efficiency of atrazine degradation, resulting in an increased degradation efficiency of 92.1% after 270 min, which is 1.94 times higher than that of the single TiO2. As the sintering temperate of CuWO4 was increased, the degradation efficiency of atrazine increased initially and then deceased after reaching a maximum at 500 °C. The origin of the synergistic effect of TiO2-CuWO4 is attributed to the introduction of solid CuWO4. The photochemical test results indicate that the photogenerated electrons transfer from irradiated TiO2 to CuWO4, which is beneficial to the O2 reduction and H2O2 formation in aqueous solution thus promoting the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. These observations unveil the importance of improving photocatalytic activity of TiO2 with Cu-bearing semiconductors.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the 2017 Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JCYJ20170306144117642).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Dewen He, Yang Yang, Kanggen Zhou & Wei Chen

  2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Industrial Water Conservation & Municipal Wastewater Resources Technology, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzen, 518055, China

    Jianjun Tang, Yiqing Chen & Zijun Dong

Authors
  1. Dewen He
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  2. Yang Yang
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  3. Jianjun Tang
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  4. Kanggen Zhou
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  5. Wei Chen
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  6. Yiqing Chen
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  7. Zijun Dong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianjun Tang.

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Responsible editor: Suresh Pillai

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Highlights

• The combination of sintered CuWO4 and TiO2 could significantly enhance the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of atrazine.

• The TiO2-CuWO4 photocatalyst showed robust stability and the high degradation efficiency for atrazine was ascribed to solid CuWO4.

• The photogenerated electrons transfer from the irradiated TiO2 to CuWO4 in which CuWO4 acts as a ecb− scavenger.

• There were no photogenerated hvb+ transferred between the irradiated TiO2 and CuWO4.

• The possible mechanism for synergistic effect of TiO2-CuWO4 and the possible photodegradation pathways of atrazine were proposed.

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He, D., Yang, Y., Tang, J. et al. Synergistic effect of TiO2-CuWO4 on the photocatalytic degradation of atrazine. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 12359–12367 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04686-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04686-1

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