Diesel oil spills in marine environments pose a severe threat to both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Photocatalysis is an environment-friendly method for marine oil remediation; however, its practical usage is limited due to several issues. In this study, we demonstrate the enhanced efficacy of doped CuO/ZrO₂ photocatalyst at degrading marine diesel in comparison to undoped ZrO₂. The photocatalysts were prepared using co-precipitation method, and their physical and chemical properties were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). XRD analysis showed that the photocatalytic crystallite size of ZrO₂ and CuO/ZrO₂ was 28.80 nm and 40.32 nm, respectively. Both catalysts exhibited stable crystalline forms. UV-Vis analysis showed that doping of ZrO₂ with CuO significantly reduced its band gap from 4.61 eV to 1.18 eV, thus enhancing the utilization of visible light. The effect of catalyst dosage, doping ratio, and initial diesel concentration on the degradation rate of diesel was investigated by performing single-factor experiments. The optimization experiment results showed that 96.96% of diesel could be degraded under visible light. This study laid an experimental foundation for expanding the practical applications of photocatalytic technology.

海洋环境中的柴油泄漏对水生和陆地生态系统都构成了严重威胁。光催化是一种环境友好的海洋石油修复方法。但是，由于几个问题，其实际使用受到限制。在这项研究中，我们证明了与未掺杂的ZrO ₂相比，掺杂的CuO / ZrO ₂光催化剂在降解船用柴油方面具有增强的功效。采用共沉淀法制备光催化剂，并通过X射线衍射（XRD），扫描电子显微镜（SEM），能量色散光谱（EDS）和紫外可见光谱（UV-Vis）表征其理化性质。 。XRD分析表明ZrO ₂和CuO / ZrO ₂的光催化晶粒尺寸分别为28.80nm和40.32nm。两种催化剂均表现出稳定的结晶形式。UV-Vis分析表明，用CuO掺杂ZrO ₂可以将其带隙从4.61 eV减小到1.18 eV，从而提高了可见光的利用率。通过单因素实验研究了催化剂用量，掺杂比例和初始柴油浓度对柴油降解率的影响。优化实验结果表明，可见光能降解96.96％的柴油。该研究为扩大光催化技术的实际应用奠定了实验基础。