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Synthesis and Characterization of Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes
Incorporated into Biopolymer for Degradation of Methyl
Basirah Binti Mohd Azam
Dr. Mohd Hasmizam Bin Razali
Bachelor of Science (Chemical Science)
School of Fundamental Science
The major concern of this research is to overcome the limitation of suspensions mode
heterogeneous photocatalysis by implementation of immobilized TiO2. Thus, in this
study commercial titanium dioxide (TiO2) powder was used as precursors to synthesis
of TiO2 nanotubes by using hydrothermal method. The synthesized TiO2 nanotubes
was incorporated into sodium alginate biopolymer for TiO2 immobilisation. The result
shows that the synthesized TiO2 nanotubes had ununiformed diameter size within
30nm - 33nm with high crystallinity and the surface area is 102.0512 m²/g. TiO2
nanotubes were homogeneously distributed in sodium alginate biopolymer, however
their photocatalytic activity for methyl orange degradation is lower as compared to
TiO2 nanotubes powder in 3 hours reaction. This is due to the lower UV penetration
through alginate surface to reach active site of the TiO2 nanoparticle since the opacity
of the alginate beads increases.
408 | U M T U N D E R G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H D A Y 2018