Hydrothermal-Assisted Synthesis of Copper Nanoparticles-Decorated Titania Nanofibers for Methylene Blue Photodegradation and Catalyst for Sodium Borohydride Dehydrogenation

Abstract

Simple and inexpensive electrospinning and hydrothermal techniques were used to synthesize titania nanofibers (TiO2 NFs) (composite NFs) decorated with copper nanoparticle (Cu NPs). The fabricated composite NFs have been tested as a photocatalytic material to degrade methylene blue (MB) as a model dye under visible light. The introduced composite NFs have shown good photocatalytic activity compared with pristine TiO2 NFs; 100% and 50% of dye were degraded in 120 min for composite NFs and pristine TiO2 NFs, respectively. Furthermore, composite NFs demonstrated good stability for four cycles. In addition, the fabricated Cu-TiO2 NFs have shown good photocatalytic activity for the production of H2 from sodium borohydride.