Fabrication of Hybrid Photocatalyst Al-MIL-53/Graphite Oxide for Photodegradation of organic molecule Dyes under UV light and Solar Radiation Ris Kevin Bramasta (a), Rehan Rizkyta Peranginangin (a), Muttaqin (a*)
a. Chemistry Department of Universitas Pertamina
Abstract
Solar energy, especially from Ultraviolet (UV) and visible light, can be utilized in the process of inducing photocatalysts in wastewater treatment which is polluted by organic molecule dyes. One type of material that has received great attention recently in the photocatalyst field is a metal-organic framework (MOF). In this work, the hybrid Al-MIL-53/graphite oxide (GO) was successfully synthesized using the facile solvothermal method. Several characterization techniques such as XRD, BET, SEM, and FTIR were used to obtain information related to the physical and chemical properties of the hybrid material. The N2 adsorption (BET) showed that it has a mesoporous structure, while for the diffractogram data, most peaks are mixtures between Al-MIL-53 and GO. However, one peak that appears at 2 theta = 21.76 degree belongs to the peak of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The hybrid material is easy to fabricate and has good photocatalytic performance for the degradation of methylene orange (MO) in an aqueous solution. After 120 minutes under UV light radiation, the degradation efficiency of MO reached up to 89 % for the type A sample. However, under solar energy radiation, it has better performance and the photocatalytic activity reached more than 90 % efficiency using identical sample condition and irradiation time. Furthermore, using tauc plot method, it produces optical bandgap Energy in the range 3.7 - 4 eV. From these data, the hybrid material has a potential candidate for environmental restoration.
