The development of the textile industry in Indonesia is experiencing rapid growth in line with the increasing needs of the community. But on the other hand, it turns out that this hurts the environment, namely the increasing amount of textile waste that is difficult to degrade in aquatic media. One alternative for textile waste treatment that is currently being proposed is through photocatalytic mechanisms/principles. This was conveyed by Ahmad Fauzi in the FTUI Metallurgical and Material Engineering Doctoral Promotion Session on Thursday (30/6).
In his research, Ahmad Fauzi uses one of the semiconductor materials that are often used in photocatalytic processes, namely titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. “This material still has some limitations, namely the low optical response to photon energy in the visible range, and the rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs, which reduces the efficiency of the pollutant degradation rate. There are several ways to overcome these challenges, including doping TiO2 nanoparticles with metal or non-metal elements and modifying the morphology of TiO2 from a zero-dimensional (0-D) nanoparticle structure to a one-dimensional (1-D) nanotube structure,” said Ahmad.
In his research, Ahmad modified the nanostructure of titanium dioxide (TiO2) using the mineral ilmenite (FeTiO3) as a natural precursor through hydrometallurgical extraction, hydrolysis, hydrothermal, and post-hydrothermal extraction processes. This study includes a comparison of the modified titanium dioxide nanostructure from synthetic (ilmenite slag), commercial (P-25 Degussa), and extracted ilmenite (titanium oxosulphate) with the same treatment process.
“The results show that the ilmenite mineral processing results in the form of slag and filtrate (titanium oxosulphate) can be used as alternative precursors to modify titanium dioxide nanostructures. Various analyzes have shown that the ilmenite mineral processing results can form TiO2 nanostructures that have morphological characteristics, crystal structure properties, and optical properties as well as photocatalytic performance that is close to the characteristics of commercial TiO2 nanostructures,” concluded Ahmad.
Ahmad Fauzi won a Doctorate with Cum Laude predicate at this Doctoral Promotion Session. He is the 54th Doctor who graduated from the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and the 453rd Doctorate at FTUI. The doctoral promotion session was led by the Chair of the Session, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST., M.Eng., IPU. with the Promoter, Prof. Dr. Ir. Akhmad Herman Yuwono, M.Phil.Eng. and Co-Promoter, Dr. Latifa Hanum Lalasari S.T., M.T. The Examiner Team consists of Drs. Nofrijon Sofyan, M.Sc., Ph.D, Dr. Ir. Donanta Dhaneswara, M.Si, Dr.-Ing. Reza Miftahul Ulum, S.T., M.T., Dr.-Ing. Alfian Ferdiansyah, S.T., M.T., and Prof. Dr. Ir. Florentine Firdiyono.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia