SYNTHESIS OF TITANIUM (IV) OXIDE RUBBER COMPOSITE MEMBRANE FOR PHOTODEGRADATION OF METHYL ORANGE DYE

Abstract

Synthetic dyes are major pollutant in textile industries. They have contributed to the hazard encountered in water pollution; hence reducing the toxicity is of paramount interest. Titanium (IV) oxide was synthesized through sol-gel route and blended with natural rubber in various ratios to form composites using Thermo scientific Haake PolyLab OS RheoDrive 7. Photodegradation of methyl orange dye in aqueous media was investigated as a model of organic pollutant under visible light irradiation by using natural rubber composites filled with TiO2 nanoparticle. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Powdered X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD) and UV–Vis Spectroscopy (UV-Vis) were used for characterization of prepared nanoparticles and natural rubber composites. The absorption band observed at 750-500 cm-1 was attributed to Ti-O-Ti bond in the TiO2 lattice. The PXRD result revealed presence of rutile phase with an average crystallite size of 11 nm. The UV-Vis spectrum showed absorption wavelength of 427 nm with corresponding band gap energy of 2.9 eV. SEM analysis showed the morphology to be with average particle size ranging from 50-170 nm. The EDS results confirmed the presence and distribution of Ti, O and C in the crystal composition and composites. The photocatalytic reactivity of the nanoTiO2 and composite were evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange dye under the visible light. The photodegradation of methyl orange dyes of 39.9, 2.3, 2.1 and 7.3% were attained at pH 2.1, pH 4.1, pH 6.7 and pH 11 respectively within 300 min at 2gL-1 catalyst dose. However, the composite filled with 4 and 6% nanoTiO2 gave 21 and 30.7 % degradation of methyl orange respectively, while natural rubber showed 8 % degradation. The development of composites filled with nanoTiO2 has proven to be a potential way of providing environmentally benign routes for water treatment.