Titanium dioxide photocatalyst was synthesised by microemulsions method under controlled hydrolysis of titanium butoxide, Ti(O(CH2)3)CH3. The synthesised TiO2 photocatalyst was compared with Sigma-commercial TiO2 by carrying out the investigation on its properties using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The photocatalytic activities for both photocatalysts were studied for atrazine photodegradation.
Methyl orange is one of the anionic dyes and is a major pollutant from textile industry that enters both aquatic and atmospheric systems. In this research, methyl orange was degraded using TiO2 powder and immobilized TiO2 on glass. Titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP) was used for preparation of TiO2 powder using soft chemistry method, and it was immobilized on glass via paste-gel coating method. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by XRD and SEM. Highly crystalline anatase TiO2 powder photocatalyst was obtained. Meanwhile, immobilized TiO2 was less crystalline and agglomerated onto the glass surface. TiO2 powder had higher degradation rate (71%) compared to immobilized TiO2 (52%) due to its chemical stability and larger amount of photocatalyst contacted with methyl orange during the degradation process.