Physicochemical characteristics and photocatalytic performance of TiO2/SiO2 catalyst synthesized using biogenic silica from bamboo leaves

Is Fatimah; Nurcahyo Iman Prakoso; Imam Sahroni; M Miqdam Musawwa; Yoke-Leng Sim; Fethi Kooli; Oki Muraza

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02766

Physicochemical characteristics and photocatalytic performance of TiO₂/SiO₂ catalyst synthesized using biogenic silica from bamboo leaves

Heliyon. 2019 Nov 14;5(11):e02766. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02766. eCollection 2019 Nov.

Authors

Is Fatimah¹, Nurcahyo Iman Prakoso¹, Imam Sahroni¹, M Miqdam Musawwa¹, Yoke-Leng Sim², Fethi Kooli³, Oki Muraza⁴

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry Department, Universitas Islam Indonesia, Kampus Terpadu UII, Jl. Kaliurang Km 14, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
² Chemistry Department, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Perak, Malaysia.
³ Taibah University-Al Mahd Branch, Community College- Al-Mahd, 44412, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In this work, TiO₂/SiO₂ composite photocatalysts were prepared using biogenic silica extracted from bamboo leaves and titanium tetraisopropoxide as a titania precursor via a sol-gel mechanism. A study of the physicochemical properties of materials as a function of their titanium dioxide content was conducted using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, a scanning electron microscope, a diffuse reflectance ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometer, and a gas sorption analyzer. The relationship between physicochemical parameters and photocatalytic performance was evaluated using the methylene blue (MB) photocatalytic degradation process under UV irradiation with and without the addition of H₂O₂ as an oxidant. The results demonstrated that increasing the TiO₂ helps enhance the parameters of specific surface area, the pore volume, and the particle size of titanium dioxide, while the band gap energy reaches a maximum of 3.21 eV for 40% and 60% Ti content. The composites exhibit photocatalytic activity with the MB degradation with increasing photocatalytic efficiency since the composites with 40 and 60% wt. of TiO₂ demonstrated the higher degradation rate compared with TiO₂ in the presence and absence of H₂O₂. This higher rate is correlated with the higher specific surface area and band gap energy compared with those of TiO₂.

Keywords: Biogenic silica; Environmental science; Materials chemistry; Photocatalyst; TiO2; TiO2/SiO2 composites.