The meso-macroporous Fe-doped Cu O was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method combined with post-annealing. The samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller N2 adsorption-desorption analyses and UV-vis diffuses reflectance spectroscopy. The Fe-doped Cu O sample shows higher adsorption capacity and photocatalytic activity for xanthate degradation than pure Cu O under visible light irradiation. In addition, the adsorption process is found to fit Langmuir isotherms and pseudo-second-order kinetics. The the first order kinetic Langmuir Hinshelwood model was used to study the reaction kinetics of photocatalytic degradation, and the apparent rate constant( k) was calculated. The value of k for Fe-doped Cu O is 1.5 times that of pure Cu O. The higher photocatalytic activity of Fe-doped Cu O is attributed to higher specific surface area together with stronger visible light absorption.
