Optimization of pH and radiation time for photocatalytic activity of methyl orange using TiO2

Textile industry requires a lot of water in the process of manufacturing as well as coloring agent. The by- product of this industrial process forms colored liquid waste. Poor waste treatment causes problems to the environmental due to their toxic nature. One of the organic compund that used in coloring and textile manufacture is methyl orange. Photocatalyst is a material that very useful for degradation of organic pollutant. There are many materials that can be made as photocatalyst especially semiconductor material such as titanium dioxide with the chemical formula TiO2. This research aims to conduct photocatalytic activities using TiO2 synthesized by hydrothermal method. Optimization of pH and time contact has been done under the artificial UV light source in 254 wavelength. The percentage of degradation was determined by measuring methyl orange solution before and after degradation using UV-Vis spectrophotometer in 467 nm maximum lambda. It shown that the optimum photocatalytic activity for pH and time contact is 5 and 8 hours respectively. Physically, there was color changing during the reaction from orange to colorless.