Avaliação da eficiência fotocatalítica do ZnO dopado com Cu em rodamina B

Abstract

The production of various industries, such as textiles, has increased in recent years and, as a result, more waste is being generated, as new technologies are appearing more frequently and increasing the demand for production. Although these advances are beneficial in some aspects for the world’s population, they generate effluent waste that ends up being disposed of incorrectly. These compounds can reach drinking water sources, which can cause serious public health problems. In view of this, this work was developed to create an alternative for eliminating such pollutants in aqueous media through the process of heterogeneous photocatalysis, using zinc oxide (ZnO) doped with copper (Cu) as a catalyst. Doping with Cu tends to increase the efficiency of photocatalysis since pure ZnO has the problem of electron recombination. The catalyst was synthesized using the microwave-assisted hydrothermal method and underwent characterizations such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, pH at the point of zero charge, and antimicrobial activity. It was also applied in heterogeneous photocatalysis, where it obtained results of total decolorization of the rhodamine B dye in a maximum period of approximately 60 min and a minimum of approximately 30 min. This leads to the conclusion that there was an improvement in the process of heterogeneous photocatalysis of RhB, as expected.