DEHIDRASI ETANOL MENJADI DIETIL ETER DENGAN KATALIS BENTONIT TERPILAR ZIRKONIUM FOSFAT

The process of pilarization of natural bentonite with zirconium phosphate is carried out by varying the amount of zirconium phosphate in a ratio of 2,4,6,8 and 10 mEq / 1 gram of natural bentonite. Bentonite-Zr(H2PO4)4 catalyst with variations 2,4,6,8 and 10 mEq and Na-Bentonite are used to dehydrate ethanol to diethyl ether. The use of Na-Bentonite catalyst as a standard to get the best catalyst. The dehydration process of ethanol becomes diethyl ether is carried out using an open reflux tool and the ethanol dehydration results will be analyzed using a GC-MS tool. The results of ethanol dehydration using Na-Bentonite catalyst produced 0.05% diethyl ether area and Bentonite-Zr(H2PO4)4 catalyst with a variation of 8 mEq / 1 g bentonite resulted in the largest percentile diethyl ether area was 42.66%. Na-Bentonite and Bentonite-Zr(H2PO4)4 catalyst 8 mEq were characterized using XRD, FT-IR spectrophotometer, SEM-EDS, acidity analysis and GSA NOVA 1000. Diffractogram of Na-Bentonite and Bentonite-Zr (H2PO4)4 8 mEq Spectrophotometer shows that the process of pilarization of bentonite with zirconium phosphate occurs imperfectly. Functional group analysis using FTIR showed that there was a typical peak at 3600 cm-1 which was identified by the vibration of α-Zr(H2PO4)4 and at 3153 cm-1 which was the typical peak of the -HPO4 group. Acidity analysis with ammonia gas shows that the Bentonite-Zr(H2PO4)4 8 mEq catalyst has a higher acidity value than Na-Bentonite due to the presence of zirconium metal and hydrogen from phosphate groups. The surface morphology of Bentonite-Zr(H2PO4)4 8 mEq catalyst looks rough and many scattered pores are indicating that the distance between layers is due to zirconium phosphate pilarization in bentonite. Characterization with GSA (Gas Sorption Analyzer) shows that the Bentonite-Zr(H2PO4)4 8 mEq catalyst has a surface area, pore volume and pore diameter greater than Na-Bentonite.