Synthesis and Characterization of TNTs/Polyaniline Composite as Photocatalyst Degradation of Rhodamin B by Visible Light

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this research is to study the effect of the amount of aniline on their photocatalytic activity. Nano TiO<sub>2</sub> was synthesized using sol-gel method with TiPP precursor. XRD characterization results showed that nano TiO<sub>2</sub> with calcination temperature of 450 °C had size of 13.8 nm with high crystalline. The diffraction peaks of nano TiO<sub>2</sub> at 2θ are 24.45°; 37.075°; 47.26° and 53.18°. Nano TiO<sub>2</sub> was then synthesized with hydrothermal treatment 24 h of 140 °C to produce TNTs. The results of XRD analysis shows anatase phase with field (004) and (200). The morphology of TNTs begins to form at the calcinations temperature of 600 °C with textural coefficient value of 0.998 3 . Synthesis of composite TNTs/PANI (polyaniline) was done by in situ polymerization technique of aniline which was already contained nano TiO<sub>2</sub>. The molar ratio of aniline and APS in the synthesis of a composite is 1:1.5 with the addition of aniline of 15 %; 20 % and 25 % (w/w %). Characterization using FTIR showed the stretching vibration of the C=N in wavelength of 1 600 cm<sup>–1</sup> to mark the formation of quinonoid compounds of polyaniline. The test of the rhodamine B degradation gave the best results on the 25 % TNTs/PANI composite, with the degradation percentage of 58.73 %. The characterization results using dr-uv proved that the decrease of energy gap in the TNTs/PANI composite which as evidenced with Kubelka-Munk calculation equation that was 25 % TNTs/PANI amounting to 3.19 eV and TNTs at 3.24 eV.</p>