Abstract
In this study, we have utilized clay from Pariaman, Indonesia enriched with silica from rice husk ash to produce zeolite through a hydrothermal process. The resulting zeolite is then composited with the most common semiconductor photocatalyst, an anatase titanium oxide, to increase the semiconductor efficiency in terms of particle distribution and light sources activation. From X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) measurement, it can be seen that the Si/Al mole ratio in the clay has been successfully increased from 1.8 to 2.0. These data are strengthened by the results of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis which shows the formation of zeolites of several types consisting of zeolite faujasite, P1, sodalite, X, and nu-6. When the synthesized zeolite is mixed with titania anatase, a composite is formed as evidenced by FTIR analysis with the appearance of Si-O-Si and Si-O-Al absorption bands for zeolite and Ti-O-Ti from titania. This zeolite has been shown to reduce the bandgap energy of titanium oxide after the two materials have been composited. Measurements with Ultraviolet-Visible Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS) showed that the TiO2-anatase band gap decreased by about 20 %, from 3.20 to 2.56 eV allowing theoretically the composite to be considered as a promising photocatalyst.
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