Preparation, Characterization, and Evaluation of the Optical Properties of Cu-TiO2 Composite Prepared by Powder Metallurgy Technique

Abstract Copper is considered one of the most suitable metals with titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) surfaces that can achieve a great improvement in the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. The major objective of this paper is to improve the performance of Cu nanomaterials by increasing their optical activities. In this paper, TiO 2 doped Cu nano-catalysts have been prepared and characterized. Cu-TiO 2 powder nanocomposite is prepared by mechanical milling to achieve a high performance of the photocatalytic activity of Cu powder, which was reinforced with 10, 20, 30 & 40 wt.% TiO 2 . Mechanical milling was achieved by a 20:1 ball to powder ratio with 250 rpm for 20 hrs. milling time. Stearic acid was added as a Process Control Agent (PCA). In this paper, the microstructure was examined by SEM which indicates the good homogeneity between Cu & TiO 2 . The phase structure and phase composition were estimated by XRD. The results showed that there are no new peeks rather than Cu & TiO 2 were recorded. The samples are examined using IR spectroscopy to investigate the absorption band spectra. Also, the antireflection properties were studied. According to that, the experimental results imply that the improvement of the Cu matrix nanomaterial performance can be acquired by doping it with TiO 2 metal due to the optical activity being improved and moved to the visible region. The results proved also that controlling the ratio of TiO 2 in copper can achieve the required film thickness and reflectivity to obtain the optimum anti-reflection layer.