The composite of ZrO2-TiO2 produced from local zircon sand used as a photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue in a single batik dye wastewater

Abstract

In this research, a composite of ZrO2-TiO2 was used as a photocatalyst in the degradation of dye waste-water. The dye waste water is a single Methylene Blue, MB, waste water from Batik industry. The ZrO2 was prepared from zircon sand founded from Bangka Island, Indonesia. The composite was pre-pared at various weight ratios and heat treated at 500 oC. The result shows that the purity of ZrO2 from zircon sand is only 66.46 %. However, the addition of ZrO2 into TiO2 is able to increase the photo-catalytic activity which proven by 88.75 % degradation of MB at a ZrO2-TiO2 weight ratio of 1:1. The degradation result is higher than that with anatase TiO2; that is only 62.67 %. The kinetics study found that the photocatalytic degradation of MB with single TiO2 has the rate constant of 1.85×10-2 minutes-1. Meanwhile, the rate constant of the MB degradation with the composite ZrO2-TiO2 is 16.73×10-2 minutes-1.