Optimisasi Adsorpsi Biru Metilena oleh Alofan dan Nanokomposit Alofan-TiO2 serta Uji Fotokatalisisnya

Abstract

Allophane is a natural clay mineral with high adsorption capacity. This mineral often found in volcanic soil. Indonesia is one of the countries with many active volcanoes, so the probability to find the type of mineral is quite high. To improve their characteristics, allophane was made into nanocomposite with TiO2, the resulting a substance with adsoptive-photocatalyst characteristics. In this research, the adsorption of methylene blue was optimized based on two parameters, agitation time and mass of the adsorbent. The optimazed agitation time for the adsorption of methylene blue by allophane and nanocomposite allophane-TiO2 were obtained at 1.5 hours. The optimized mass of allophane and nanocomposite were 80 mg and 60 mg respectively. The synthesized-nanocomposite was shown to have the adsorptive-photocatalytic properties because it can degraded methylene blue after irradiated with ultraviolet light.