Degradation of methyl orange dye using Fe3O4/GO photocatalyst with iron derived from coastal Glagah Kulon Progo ore

Abstract

Water pollution by dyes is still a serious problem that needs to be solved. This study offers a solution to degrade methyl orange dye using a photocatalyst material, namely Fe3O4/GO nanocomposite. Magnetite (Fe3O4) was synthesized from iron sand from Glagah Kulon Progo beach, using the coprecipitation method. Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized by Hummers’ method, while the manufacture of the Fe3O4/GO nanocomposite was done by sonication method. The resulting magnetite, graphene oxide and nanocomposite were then characterized by XRD, UV–Vis and SEM-EDX. The effect of nanocomposite mass variation and irradiation time on the percentage degradation of the synthetic dye methyl orange (MO) in wastewater was investigated. The results of UV-Vis’s characterization showed that the best results were obtained when MO dye was degraded using 0.175 g nanocomposite in 40 mL of wastewater containing 10 ppm MO. The degradation of MO dye reached 99.05% under UV light irradiation for 240 minutes. Then investigated reuse of the nanocomposite was evaluated for three cycles, with the results showing an average efficiency decrease of 5.30%. This research contributes to the development of sustainable and effective photocatalytic materials for the treatment of dye-polluted water, especially MO.