COMPOSITE OF ZnO/SBE AS CATALYST MATERIALS FOR PHOTODEGRADATION OF RHODAMINE-B
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2024.0004
Received: 8 May 2023 Accepted: 23 October 2023 Published Online: 9 January 2024
Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) is a solid waste material from the palm oil refining process, and its abundance poses environmental challenges. Meanwhile, Rhodamine B (RhB) is a liquid pollutant produced by the textile industry. SBE could potentially be a viable solution for RhB treatment, as it can adsorb on its surface. However, SBE lacks the ability to chemically degrade the RhB pollutant. Therefore, in this study, SBE was combined with ZnO, a highly effective photocatalyst semiconductor, to create a composite material for the photodegradation of RhB. This experiment aimed to investigate the effect of SBE pyrolysis temperature on the morphology and structure of the ZnO/SBE composite, as well as its capability to degrade RhB. The pyrolysis temperatures chosen for variation were 450°C, 500°C, and 550°C. The experiments have shown that SBE activated at 500°C exhibited the highest surface area, measuring 106.851 m2 g-1. Consequently, the corresponding composite ZnO/SBE photocatalyst activated at 500°C demonstrated the most efficient performance in RhB degradation, achieving a rate of 67.8%. The ability of ZnO/SBE to photodegrade RhB was confirmed by the GC-MS results, which demonstrated the degradation of RhB into various other chemicals.
KEYWORDS:1 Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Department,
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS),
Kampus ITS, Keputih, Sukolilo, Surabaya, 60111 Indonesia.
2 Environmental Engineering Department,
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS),
Kampus ITS, Keputih, Sukolilo, Surabaya, 60111 Indonesia.
3 Chemical Engineering Department,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST),
Sec. 4 No 43, Keelung Road, Taipei, 106335 Taiwan-ROC.
* Corresponding author e-mail: santiche@mat-eng.its.ac.id