Photocatalytic Activity of Boron Doped CuO and Its Composite with Polyaniline

Abstract

This study used a simple one-step technique to prepare boron-doped copper (II) oxide (CuO-B) nanoparticles, which were synthesized through the solution combustion method. The as-prepared CuO-B nanoparticles were compounded with the conducting polymer, polyaniline (Pani), in varying composition. This study revealed the effect of compounding with Pani on the photocatalytic activity of CuO-B. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated through the degradation of the methylene blue dye under visible light irradiation. The as-prepared CuO-B nanoparticles and their composites with Pani were characterized through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. When compared with CuO-B, Pani composites resulted in improved photocatalytic dye degradation efficiency due to the suppression of the recombination rate of the photoexcited charge carriers on CuO-B. The Pani composite with 80 wt.% CuO-B exhibited an 65.3% degradation of the model dye in 240 min, which was about 7% higher than that of CuO-B. A 1.2-fold increase in the reaction rate was obtained for the specified composite. The optical band gap of CuO-B increased to 1.40 eV when it was compounded with 20 wt.% Pani. In real wastewater environment, the dye degradation efficiency of CuO-B decreased from 57.9% to 51.9%. In addition, the dye degradation efficiency of four times of recycled CuO-B reduced to 33.7% in 240 min. © 2022 Taylor & Francis.