SINTESIS KOMPOSIT MnO2-BENTONIT SEBAGAI KATALIS UNTUK DEGRADASI METILEN BIRU

Abstract

World production of dyes reaches more than 700,000 tons per year. This number will continue to increase with the increasing number of applications of dyes in various products such as cosmetics, printing, textiles, paper and other industries. In the coloring process only 85% of the dye is used and the remaining 15% is wasted as waste. Dyestuff waste that is discharged into the environment without further processing is toxic with potential carcinogenic and genotoxic effects. The dye that is often used in the textile industry is methylene blue (MB) because it is cheap and easy to obtain. The chemical method based on the Fenton reaction can rapidly degrade organic compounds into harmless products such as CO2 and H2O using highly reactive radicals such as OH•. The MnO2-bentonite composite in this study was synthesized to be a catalyst that decomposes H2O2 into radicals. This composite was successfully obtained after dispersing cryptomelane which was synthesized from the reduction of KMnO4 by citric acid through the reflux method (mole ratio 3:1). This MnO2-bentonite composite was used as a heterogeneous Fenton by activating H2O2 into OH radical on the surface of bentonite. Variations of reaction parameters such as photocatalyst and H2O2 volume were used to optimize MB degradation. Based on the research that has been done, the percentage of degradation is 97.643% through photocatalyst, with a variation volume of H2O2 as much as 5 mL the percentage of degradation is 91,616 %.