Systematic Study of Calcination Temperature on Photocatalytic Activity of Luminescent Copper(I) Pyrazolate Complex/Titanium Oxide Composites

Abstract

Columnar assembly of luminescent 3,5-dimethyl pyrazolate complexes/titanium oxide composites with different metal ions has shown significant improvement in its photocatalytic activity for the removal and degradation of 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Since photocatalytic activity of semiconductor titanium oxide (TiO2) with an anatase phase can be improved by calcination temperature, we report the effect of heat treatments on the preparation of copper(I) 3,5-dimethyl pyrazolate complex/titanium oxide composite ([Cu3Pz3]/TiO2) for the removal and degradation of 2,4-D. Photocatalyst composites [Cu3Pz3]/TiO2 were successfully prepared using an impregnation method with different calcination temperature at 373, 473 and 573 K. Although, the activity of photocatalyst composites [Cu3Pz3]/TiO2 was significantly improved with increasing of calcination temperature on pure TiO2, it was slightly reduced with an increase of calcined temperature to 473 and 573 K. These results showed that [Cu3Pz3]/TiO2 was unstable at high temperature due to the decomposition of molecular structure of [Cu3Pz3] during the preparation of the photocatalyst. Hence, suitable calcination temperature is an important parameter to increase photocatalytic activity of photocatalyst composites [Cu3Pz3]/TiO2.