Influência da cristalinidade na fotocatálise do CuGeO3

Abstract

Contamination of water resources, for example, with pharmaceuticals and textile dyes, has been worrying the whole world. Such substances are difficult to degrade and even at low concentrations they can pose a great risk to human health. It has been widely demonstrated that heterogeneous photocatalysis is an efficient strategy for the degradation of several micropollutants. As is well known, semiconductor materials when activated by light lead to the formation of oxidative species, known as ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species), which are responsible for the mineralization of contaminants during effluent treatment. Recently, copper germanate (CuGeO3) has aroused enormous technological interest because it presents relevant physicochemical properties for such applications. In this work, the synthesis of CuGeO3 nanocrystals in two steps is proposed, the hydrothermal synthesis followed by the calcination of the samples at different temperatures. Then, we carried out an analysis of the influence of crystallinity on the photocatalytic properties of these materials through the degradation of the methylene blue dye under UV light irradiation. Finally, these results can help in the development of new semiconductor materials for application in the treatment of emerging contaminants.