Indoor air is characterized by a set of physical, chemical, or biological pollutants of different origins [1].

For this
reason, technologies that have the ability to purify the air from organic contaminants with efficient and inexpensive
processes became the objective of many research groups [2, 3]. The photocatalytic process is began to be widely
studied about four decades ago and it has been shown that photocatalysis can be is a promising an interesting
technique for environmental remediation. This technique is based on light irradiation and activation of
semiconductors by light irradiation allowing the formation of reactive oxygen species (RSO) (ROS) such as
hydroxyl radicals (OH°) (OH−) which leads to the pollutant’s degradation.

In this work, we investigate the effect of decoration of TiO2 nanotubes (TiO2-NTs) with Cu2O nanoparticles (Cu2O-
NPs) on a volatile organic compounds (VOCs) photocatalytic removal process and bacterial disinfection. In order to
achieve this, Copper oxide nanoparticles were loaded onto TiO2- NPs by the electrodeposition method. The butane-2,
3-dione (BUT) from the food industry was used as a target VOC pollutant due to its potentially negative
environmental effects (high toxicity and confirmed carcinogenicity). Our Cu2O-NPs/TiO2-NTs photocatalysts were
characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
(UV-vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To evaluate the
photocatalytic and antibacterial performance of Cu2O-NPs/TiO2-NTs, simultaneous removal of Escherichia coli (E.
coli) and butane-2, 3-dione (BUT) was performed with the optimized catalyst. We have obtained 98 % bacterial
inactivation and a total VOC removal within 60 min and 25 min intervals of solar irradiation, respectively.