Synthesis of CuO-TiO2 nano-composite for Escherichia coli disinfection and toluene degradation

In this present work, synthesized CuO-TiO2 nano-composite was evaluated for Escherichia coli disinfection and toluene degradation. Toluene was chosen as the model of organic pollutant due to its significant amount on indoor environment while E. coli bacteria was chosen as the model for microorganism in the indoor air due to its structural similarities with other bacteria. Photo Assisted Deposition (PAD) method was used for synthesizing CuO-TiO2, in which CuO was deposited on TiO2 with the help of photon. The physico-chemical properties of CuO-TiO2 were assessed with characterizations such as XRD and SEM-EDX to determine differences between TiO2 and CuO-TiO2. The E. coli disinfection and toluene degradation abilities were assessed by, respectively mixing bacteria colony and toluene with CuO-TiO2 slurry under a photoreactor. Both SEM-EDX and XRD results indicated the presence of CuO on TiO2, with XRD results indicated that CuO wouldn’t have been deposited on the surface of TiO2 before certain loading, SEM results revealed similarities in CuO-TiO2 morphology while EDX results revealed that CuO deposited corresponds to the amount of added CuO precursor. E. coli disinfection performance test results showed that 3% CuO-TiO2 succeeded in disinfecting E. coli bacteria and degrading toluene which reached 89% and 97% conversion in 120 minutes.