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Coupling of metals and hydrogenated TiO 2 (HT) to bare TiO 2 may improve synergistically the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 for pollutant decomposition.Herein, we address this issue by investigating the photocatalytic performances of Cu-loaded HT (CuHT)/bare TiO 2 (CuHTT) heterojunction nanocomposites for the degradation of harmful n-butanol under simulated solar light illumination. CuHTT with a CuHT-to-TiO 2 composition ratio of 0.1 showed a photocatalytic efficiency exceeding those of four reference photocatalysts, exhibiting the advantages of improved visible light absorption efficiency, charge carrier separation, and adsorption capacity. Increasing the CuHT-to-TiO 2 ratio from 0.01 to 0.1 improved the photocatalytic efficiency of CuHTT, whereas a further increase to 0.9 resulted in a decreased photocatalytic efficiency. Moreover, the photocatalytic efficiency improved as relative humidity increased from 20% to 70%, decreasing upon its further increase to 95%. The efficiencies of n-butanol to CO 2 conversion over CuHTT were lower than the corresponding decomposition efficiencies. Incompletely oxidized CO and three organic vapors (butanal, propanal, and 1-propanol) were determined as major intermediates. A possible mechanism for CuHTT-catalyzed photodegradation under simulated solar illumination was proposed. K E Y W O R D Sconversion efficiency, heterojunction nanocomposite, n-butanol, synergistic effect

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