A comprehensive study on the photocatalytic activity of coupled copper oxide-cadmium sulfide nanoparticles.

Coupled CdS-CuO nanoparticles (NPs) subjected in the photocatalytic degradation of Methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution. The calcination temperature and the crystallite phase of CuO had a significant role on the photocatalytic activity of the coupled system and CuO200/2h-CdS catalyst (containing CuO calcined at 200°C for 2h) showed the best photocatalytic activity. The coupled system showed increased activity with respect to the monocomponent semiconductors. The prepared catalysts characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyzer, x-ray mapping, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The best degradation extent of MB was obtained at: CMB: 1mgL-1, pH5, 80min irradiation time and 0.8gL-1 of the CuO200/2h-CdS catalyst. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) confirmed about 83% of MB molecules can be mineralized at the optimum conditions.