Synergistic effect of TiO -CuWO on the photocatalytic degradation of atrazine

In this work, CuWO is prepared and its effect of improving photocatalytic degradation of atrazine by TiO as well as the synergetic mechanism is studied. Results show that the addition of CuWO (50 mg/L) into the reaction system can significantly enhance the efficiency of atrazine degradation, resulting in an increased degradation efficiency of 92.1% after 270 min, which is 1.94 times higher than that of the single TiO . As the sintering temperate of CuWO was increased, the degradation efficiency of atrazine increased initially and then deceased after reaching a maximum at 500 °C. The origin of the synergistic effect of TiO -CuWO is attributed to the introduction of solid CuWO . The photochemical test results indicate that the photogenerated electrons transfer from irradiated TiO to CuWO , which is beneficial to the O reduction and H O formation in aqueous solution thus promoting the photocatalytic activity of TiO . These observations unveil the importance of improving photocatalytic activity of TiO with Cu-bearing semiconductors.