Abstract

For water purification in our daily life at low cost and in the goal to study the effect of
doping elements for heterogeneous photocatalysis application, thin layers of Ag doped CuO, (5, 15,
25 and 50 wt.%) were prepared by a sol-gel method on a glass substrate for photocatalysis. The
structural, morphological, optical and electrical characteristics of these layers have been studied.
The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) proved that there was a monoclinic phase structure in the
direction (-111). This result indicated that thin films are polycrystalline. It was confirmed by
infrared spectra (IR). In the case of Ag doping, scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed a
change in the shape of the granules with large and inhomogeneous sizes. Granules were spherical in
the case of pure copper oxide. The energy gap decreases from 2.17 eV to 1.25 eV with the
increasing doping. The improved capacitance is explained in terms of Ag particles present in CuO
nanostructures giving a good electrical conductivity. The doping effect of Ag ions has improved the
photocatalytic property of the CuO. It was tested for organic dye cleaning with Orange II. In
addition, the presence of pores on the surface of Ag:CuO thin films and a reduce energy gap enables
the creation of a greater number of •O and •OH that leads to eliminate the dye and give a
transparent solution. A 50 wt.% Ag doping showed a high photoactivity (43%)after 5h compared to
a pure CuO thin film (27% of degradation rate) for the same time.

Information

Item Type:	Journal
Divisions:
ePrint ID:	4404
Date Deposited:	2023-09-13
Further Information:	Google Scholar
URI:	https://www.univ-soukahras.dz/en/publication/article/4404

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