Structure and Photo Absorption Performance of Cu/WO_3-TiO_2 Photocatalyst

The solid material of coupled semiconductor WO3-TiO2, was prepared by a sol-gel method. The photocatalyst WO3-TiO2 supported metallic Cu was prepared by an isovolumic impregnation method. The surface structure, particle size and photo absorption performance of the materials were characterized by XRD, Raman, TPR, IR, TEM, XPS and UV-Vis. The experiment results show that 10wt%WO3 disperses on the surface of TiO2 support with one monolayer of non-crystalline phase, average particle size of 1wt%Cu/10wt%WO3-TiO2 is about 15nm. Blue shifting of photo absorption edges is observed clearly after the addition of WO3 on the surface of TiO2·The lattice WO3 forms and photo absorption performance decreases when the supporting amount of WO3 is more than that of the monolayer phase(10wt%). The formation of bond W-O-Ti in the solid systems promotes the transfer of generating charge carriers between WO3 and TiO2·Loaded metalic Cu accelerates the transformation from the tetrahedrally coordinated W species to the octahedrally coordinated W species.