Fe-TiO₂/zeolite H-A photocatalyst for degradation of waste dye (methylene blue) under UV irradiation

Industrial wastewater contains non-biodegradable dyes that are highly toxic to humans and aquatic life. As solution from photocatalytic degradation, TiO₂ is one of the effective photocatalysts for wastewater degradation, but it has low adsorption power. To overcome this deficiency, this study synthesized a new photocatalyst by Fe-TiO₂/zeolite H-A. The photocatalyst was successfully synthesized by the impregnation method and was systematically characterized by XRD, XRF, SEM, FT-IR and UV-Vis DRS. XRD diffractogram at 2θ = 25.3° showed anatase phase of the photocatalyst. SEM results showed a rough and soft surface with a size of 491.49 nm. FT-IR analysis obtained the zeolite-A characteristic band, vibration of Ti-O-Ti groups and the vibration of the Fe-O group. The bandwidth of the band gap was 3.16 eV. The photocatalytic efficiency of methylene blue degradation reached 89.58% yield with optimum conditions: irradiation time of 50 min, pH 9 and concentration of methylene blue about 20 mg/L. Fe-TiO₂/zeolite H-A as a new photocatalyst can be an alternative photocatalyst to purify methylene blue.