Kinetic study of Cu(II) adsorption on nanosized BaTiO(3) and SrTiO(3) photocatalysts

In this study, nanoparticles with perovskite structure (nano-SrTiO(3) and nano-BaTiO(3)) were synthesized via a co-precipitation method, and their photocatalytic and adsorption characteristics were investigated. Both of them exhibited some photocatalytic activity and possessed a high adsorption capacity for copper ions. Further, the pseudo-first-order model was found to be more suitable to fit the experimental data. Moreover, it suggested that the Langmuir model was more adequate in simulating the adsorption isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity was 370.4 mg/g and 200.0mg/g for nano-SrTiO(3) and nano-BaTiO(3), respectively. The negative apparent free energy confirmed that the Cu(2+) adsorption onto the nano-photocatalysts was a spontaneous process. The underlying mechanism of adsorption of Cu(II) onto nano-perovskites could be due to the ion exchange and surface complexation. From the results, SrTiO(3) and BaTiO(3) nanoparticles may be an effective material for Cu(2+) removal and, together with its photocatalytic activity, may be suitable for environmental remediation applications.