Comparison of synthesis methods on TiO2-graphene composites for photodegradation of compound waste
Desi Heltina, Dwi Imamatul Mastura, Amun Amri, Maria Peratenta Sembiring, Komalasari Komalasari
Abstract
A comparative study of TiO2-grapehene prepared by reflux and mechanical mixing methods for phenol photodegradation under visible and ultraviolet lamp is presented. The addition of graphene to TiO2 material has been applied to control the surface area, structure, and phase of the TiO2 nanocrystals. The characterization analysis of SEM-EDX discovered that the titanium dioxide were uniformly distributed on the graphene nanoplatelets and supported by the presence of Ti-O-C through FTIR characterization for the methods. The phase structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The reflux method exhibited a high TiO2 anatase phase of 83.69 % than in the mechanical mixing method of 71.09 %. According to the analysis by BET, the TiO2/graphene nanocomposites by reflux method exhibited a much larger specific surface area of 62.728 m2/g than by the mechanical mixing method of 41.502 m2/g. The photodegradation efficiency of TiO2-graphene by the reflux method under a mercury lamp has the best performance because it has a large surface area and good crystallinity.