FABRICATION OF SAND/ZINC OXIDE/TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOCOMPOSITE AS PHOTOCATALYST

In this work, a nanocomposite photocatalyst was fabricated by growing zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) on the sand as a substrate. The initial sand/ZnO was fabricated via sol-gel immersion method for 4 h at 95℃. Furthermore, the sand/ZnO/TiO 2 was fabricatedusing hydrothermal method for 5 h at 150℃. Based on field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) analysis, the fabricated sand/ZnO/TiO 2 consists of random formation of hexagonal ZnO nanorods and two pyramidal spindle ends of TiO 2 nanorods. The addition of TiO 2 on top of ZnO nanorods increased the number of active sites which enables more contaminants to be absorbed thus enhanced the photocatalysis process. Moreover, based on the micro-Raman spectra, the synthesized TiO 2 was in rutile phase and the ZnO peak was unobservable due to the overlapping with TiO 2 peak. Based on its morphological and structural properties, the fabricated sand/ZnO/TiO 2 nanocomposite was potential to be applied as photocatalyst.