In this study, we
successfully synthesized a TiO2/CuO
nanocomposite using the aqueous extract of Impatiens
tinctoria
A.rich. leaf extract as
a capping, reducing, and stabilizing agent for the first time in an
environmentally friendly, low-cost, straightforward, and sustainable
technique. Numerous characterization techniques such as ultraviolet–visible
diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis-DRS), photoluminescence
(PL), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), energy
dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray
diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller
(BET), and high resolution TEM (HRTEM) were used to characterize the
obtained TiO2/CuO nanocomposite. XRD verified that the
TiO2/CuO nanocomposite has an average crystallite size
of about 21 nm. The TEM result revealed an average particle size of
29 nm for the biosynthesized TiO2/CuO NC. The HRTEM analysis
showed the presence of polycrystalline structures with the predominant
lattice fringes 0.352 and 0.19 which were attributed to anatase phase
TiO2 in the crystal plane of (101) and (200), respectively.
The lattice fringes for monoclinic CuO were observed with values of
0.213 and 0.252 for the lattice planes of (111) and (111̅),
respectively. The photoluminescence spectroscopic analysis revealed
that the TiO2/CuO NC showed the lowest intensity compared
to the pristine TiO2 and CuO indicating the reduction of
exciton recombination in the case of the TiO2/CuO NC. The
BET analysis showcased the formation of mesoporous materials with
a surface area of 87.5 m2/g. The photocatalytic degradation
performance of the biosynthesized TiO2, CuO, and TiO2/CuO nanomaterials against the potentially harmful MB dye
was tested using the light source of a 150 tungsten-halogen lamp with
a wavelength range of 360–2800 nm. The factors affecting photodegradation
efficiencies like catalyst dose (20 mg), dye concentration(15 ppm),
pH (9), and reaction time (90 min) were optimized for the degradation
of the MB dye. The TiO2/CuO catalyst showed the highest
degradation efficiency of 99% under the optimized conditions. The
degradation rate of the MB dye in the presence of the TiO2/CuO NC was evaluated and found to be fitted to the pseudo-first-order
kinetics with a rate constant of 0.03 min–1. The
reusability test of the TiO2/CuO catalyst showed its good
stability.