Photodegradation of Methylene Blue Dye Using a Binary Composite of GO/TiO2 Under Solar Irradiation
摘要
In this study, a binary composite of graphene oxide (GO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) was used to evaluate the photocatalytic degradation of dye in solar irradiation. A slurry-type cylindrical reactor was designed for this experiment and a parabolic reflector was attached to the reactor to concentrate the incoming solar irradiation. The combination of the composite was varied depending on the weight of GO and TiO2 to enhance the removal efficiency of methylene blue (MB) dye. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis were used to characterize the synthesized composites. A composite of GO/TiO2 with a weight ratio of 2:1 of GO/TiO2 resulted in better photocatalytic efficiency and a surface area of 47.238 m2/g. The study was conducted by varying MB dose (5–20 ppm), catalyst dose (50–250 ppm), and pH value (3, 5, 7, and 10) to determine the optimum value. The synthesized GO/TiO2 nanocomposites had better removal efficiency compared to TiO2 for methylene blue degradation.