Synthesis of TiO2 pillared clay and its application to the decolourization of crystal violet dyes

Abstract

In this study the synthesis of TiO2 pillared clay was carried out through clay activation and pillarisation. The clay activation process was carried out using H2SO4 in the reflux system, then continued with pillarisation then calcined. Natural, activated and TiO2 pillared clay were characterized using FTIR and XRD, respectively to determine functional groups and basal spacing of these three materials. Clay decolonization ability to Crystal violet dye was measured based on changes in Crystal violet concentration before and after treatment using UV Vis Spectrophotometer. The results obtained in this study indicate that clay activation and pillarisation can cause a decrease in the SiOH/SiOTi ratio functional groups and increase in basal spacing. The biggest changes occurred in of TiO2 pillared clay with TiCl4: ethanol of 1: 45 against natural clay, in which SiOH/SiOTi ratio decreased from 0.68 to 0.57 and basal spacing increased from 19.19 Å to 29.17 Å. The optimal ability of clay to decolorize Crystal violet occurred at 45 minutes' contact time.