One-step synthesis of CuO/MCM-41 nanocomposites and their application in photocatalytic degradation of dyes

The CuO-mesoporous silicon oxide nanocomposites are widely used in the adsorption and degradation of environmental pollutants, attributing to the effective photogenerated electrons and holes and high specific surface area of mesoporous silicon oxide. In this papers, Cu(NO3)2 was introduced during the assembly process of mesoporous silicon oxide to prepare CuO/MCM-41 nanocomposites by one-step method, which significantly simplified the preparation process compared to post-synthesis transplantation method. The prepared CuO/MCM-41 nanocomposites was characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). CuO/MCM-41 nanocomposites had excellent degradation effect under UV irradiation of 12W on different structures dyes, such as Methylene Blue(MB), Direct Fast Scarlet 4BS, Direct Yellow 27 and Reactive Turquoise Blue KN-G. It was demonstrated that the kinetic studies of photocatalytic degradation of MB were fitted well with the first-order kinetic model. The degradation of MB retained 97% after five cycles reusing of the catalyst. The results indicated that CuO/MCM-41 nanocomposites could be used as an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of different types of dyes in wastewater.