SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PHOTOCATALYS Fe2O3 PILLARED MONTMORILLONITE DOPED TiO2 AND ITS APPLICATION FOR RHODAMINE B PHODODEGRADATION USING VISIBLE LIGHT IRRADIATION

Abstract

A montmorillonite clay modified with semiconductor metal can act as a photocatalyst material. Montmorillonite clays were chosen because of their natural characteristics which are easily to be modified and have high specific surface area. This research aims to modify montmorillonite clay into photocatalyst material. The montmorillonite clay was intercalated using Fe2O3 to produce Fe2O3-pillared montmorillonite clay, then doped with TiO2 to form a photocatalyst material Fe2O3-PILC / TiO2. Modifications were intended to increase the specific surface area and number of active photocatalyst sites and thus increase the ability of photodegradation. The characterization carried out included characterizing the pillar formation using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), specific surface area by the BET method (Bruneau, Emmet, and Teller), a the number of surface acid-base sites by the titration method. Photocatalyst with the best character was Fe2O3-PILC / TiO2 1: 3 with specific surface area, number of acid and base sites respectively 45,947 m2/g, 20,1736 x 1023 sites/gram and 19,0044 x 1023 sites/gram. The result of photodegradation at optimum condition with visible light at pH 3 using 400 mg photocatalyst was 99.84%.
 
 Keywords: photocatalyst, Fe2O3, montmorillonite clay, TiO2, rhodamine B

A short review of recent discoveries in montmorillonite‐based photocatalysts for organic dye water pollutant degradation

“…Research on Fe 2 O 3 pillared MMT doped TiO 2 photocatalyst using co‐precipitation followed by a calcination method was conducted by Dewi et al., for degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) dye (Dewi et al., 2020). The prepared photocatalyst with Fe 2 O 3 ‐MMT/TiO 2 (1:3) displayed excellent activity and degraded 99.84% of RhB dye within 120 min under visible light (30 W power and 445 nm wavelength).…”

Optimizing the photocatalytic performance of SnO2 nanoparticles for methylene blue removal with variation in calcination temperatures

“…This process is applied using photocatalytic materials through chemical reactions triggered by the absorption of photon energy. SiO2 [26], TiO2 [27], CeO2 [28], ZnO [29], Fe2O3 [30], dan SnO2 [8,10,31] are frequently implemented metal oxide photocatalysts for wastewater remediation. For nanoparticles (NPs) to be considered effective photocatalytic materials, they must satisfy several criteria: (i) a significantly high surface area, (ii) the ability to absorb photons in the visible light range, (iii) a low rate of charge recombination, (iv) a low band gap energy (Eg), (v) resistance to agglomeration, and (vi) the capability of being reused [32].…”