Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation Activity of Methyl Violet Dyes Utilizing TiO₂/Natural Zeolite Composite

Abstract For boosting the degradation activity of methyl violet employing photocatalyst, titanium dioxide modified by natural zeolite (TNZ) was successfully produced by sonication method. TiO 2 is a photocatalyst that can be used to degrade methyl violet. TNZ was characterized using XRD to determine crystal structure, XRF to determine the elemental composition, and Spectrophotometer UV-Vis/DRS to determine band gap energy and absorbance in the long wavelength region. Furthermore, TNZ was examined its photodegradation activity, including the effect of irradiation time, optimum catalyst mass, and optimum dye concentration for dye degradation. The XRD characterization results show that TiO 2 has an anatase phase, zeolite has a modernite phase. The XRF results indicate that some impurities in zeolite have been successfully removed after the activation process. Ti content in TNZ is 63.64%. Natural zeolite can decrease the band gap of TiO 2 from 3.31 eV to 3.29 eV. The optimum time for the photodegradation process is found to be 150 minutes with a degradation percentage of 98.27%. The optimum catalyst mass for the photodegradation process is 20 mg with a degradation percentage of 99.47%. The optimum dye concentration for the photodegradation process is 10 ppm with a degradation percentage of 99.74%.