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Influence of Physicochemical Characteristics of Titanium Dioxide of its
Photocatalytic Activity on Organic Azo-Dyes Degradation
Nur Haya’ binti Mohd Yasin
Supervisor: Dr. Wan Salida binti Wan Mansor
Bachelor of Technology (Environment)
School of Ocean Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
Due to the pressing environmental issue from persistent dye wastewater and
weakness of conventional treatment, heterogenous-photocatalysis from advanced
oxidation processes (AOP) were deemed as suitable replacement technique for
wastewater treatment. Heterogenous-photocatalytic activity however is highly
influenced by physicochemical characteristics of catalyst used. There are less literature
on pure catalyst as more researchers currently focusing on the integrated process to
reduce cost of implementation. Photocatalysis experiments were conducted to observe
the photocatalytic activity exhibited by modified catalyst using methylene blue (MB)
dye and titanium dioxide (TiO2) catalyst as representatives. Modification on catalyst
was performed at different calcination temperature and duration to change the
crystallite size and phase structure. The result of the study shows that the
photodegradation of MB decreased as calcination temperature and duration increased
as after 3 hours of photoreaction. The highest end-point relative concentration was
determined at 0.433 and was exhibited by TiO2 calcined at 1000 o C for 3 hours.
72 | 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 2019