| Summary: | Study on the utilization of iron sand and natural bentonite modified into TiO2/Bentonite/α-Fe2O3 photocatalysts immobilized on glass plates to obtain photocatalysts with good performance and high reusability without going through a filtering process has been conducted. Immobilization of TiO2/bentonite/α-Fe2O3 was carried out using the brush coating method and double-sided adhesive tape as a binder. Formulation of the immobilized TiO2/bentonite/α-Fe2O3composite was made by mixing TiO2 P25, bentonite, and Fe2O3 (hematite) with a mass ratio (g) of 16:4:1. Photocatalytic activity of the immobilized photocatalyst was evaluated using indigo carmine (IC) dye. Bentonite and hematite were characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). Surface morphology of hematite and TiO2/bentonite/α-Fe2O3 composite were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX). The results showed that the optimum photocatalytic activity in the degradation of IC dye was at the composite mass of 60 mg, pH 5 and concentration of solution 25 mg/L with a percentage degradation of 97.2% for 60 minutes of irradiation time. Regeneration of the TiO2/bentonite/α-Fe2O3 composites for degradation of IC dye was carried out for 5 cycles which gave similar photocatalytic activity results throughout the cycles. Immobilized TiO2/bentonite/α-Fe2O3 onto glass plate has shown a very good photocatalytic activity upon reusability. © 2024 Author(s).
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