Photocatalytic efficacy of copper telluride nanoparticles toward the degradation of methylene blue dye in wastewater

The development of an efficient, stable photocatalyst for degrading environmental pollutants remains a key challenge. In this work, copper telluride (Cu2Te) nanoparticles were synthesized via a solvothermal method using diphenyl ditelluride (DPDT) as a telluride source and oleic acid/oleyl amine as stabilizing agents. Structure and compositional analysis using powder X-ray diffraction (P-XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) confirmed the formation of crystalline, nearly spherical Cu2Te NPs with an average size of 38 ± 15 nm. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis showed the atomic ratios of Cu and Te were 68.73 and 25.60%, respectively. The synthesized Cu2Te was evaluated for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV-light. Radical scavenging experiment indicated that hydroxyl radical (*OH) and superoxide (O2-) played a primary and secondary role, respectively, in MB dye degradation. Furthermore, Cu2Te exhibited good stability and reusability after six cycles, retaining 60% of its initial efficiency.