Preparation of organic porous materials-TiO2/cu composite with excellent photocatalytic degradation performances toward degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater

Organic porous materials-TiO2/Cu composite (OPMTC) were readily fabricated through two steps, which included the formation of organic porous materials (OPM) and the in-situ synthesis of TiO2/Cu composite (TiO2/Cu) in the pore of OPM. Furthermore, the photocatalytic degradation behaviors of the photocatalysts toward organic pollutants were also investigated under simulated and nature sunlight, respectively. Finding showed that OPMTC allowed methyl orange, phenol, and methylene blue to be decomposed under simulated sunlight by the rate of 91.6%, 98.6%, and 100%, even to degraded DMF with a rate of 74% that revealed excellent photocatalytic degradation properties toward organic pollutants. Interestingly, OPMTC still kept the photocatalytic degradation ability after 6 time reuse. These results indicated the potential applications of OPMTC in the treatment of wastewater. Besides, the measurements of free radical intensities including superoxide free radical (O2·), singlet oxygen (1O2), and hydroxyl radical (·OH) of photocatalysts attributed to understanding the mechanism. The tested finding indicated that metallic copper doped TiO2 are beneficial to produce more free radicals thereby increasing photocatalytic degradation performances TiO2/Cu. OPMTC also had absorption ability measuring by BET that increased the contract area between photocatalyst and organic pollutants, thus, combining the two advantages thereby resulting in improving photocatalytic degradation properties.