Volume 7 Issue 2 (June 2020)

In this paper, the kinetics of photoinduced degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) in aqueous solution utilizing synthesized copper oxide (CuO) particles as catalyst has been studied by measuring the absorbance of the dyes at various time intervals. The CuO particles were fabricated using sol-gel method, and calcined at different temperatures in the range from 450 to 750 °C. The crystallinity of the CuO particles was confirmed using powder X-ray diffraction. The highest RhB degradation efficiency was only 10.9% by the CuO⁵⁵⁰ upon UV irradiation in 30 min, proving that CuO particles, regardless of their calcination temperature, showed poor photodegradation activity.

Keywords: activation energy, copper oxide particles, photocatalysis, rhodamine B, sol-gel