SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF TiO2-rGO HYDROTHERMAL AND PHOTOCATALYSIS ACTIVITY TEST OF METHYLENE BLUE DEGRADATION WITH VISIBLE LIGHT

Abstract

TiO2-rGO synthesis has been carried out by hydrothermal method using Titanium Tetraisopropoxide (TTiP) precursors and graphite and hydrazine hydrate as reducing agents in the TiO2-rGO photocatalyst process. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is made by reducing the oxide group on graphene oxide using hydrazine hydrate. The formation of TiO2 and rGO occurred simultaneously so that 1.977 grams of TiO2-rGO powder was produced. The results of TiO2-rGO characterization by FTIR method show that absorption peaks at wavenumber 1630 cm-1 are characteristic of C-C vibrations of the graphite skeleton. And the results of activity tests using methylene blue with the help of visible light show that TiO2-rGO is able to degrade methylene blue by 59.168%, while TiO2 is only 14.995%, thus TiO2-rGO photocatalyst has the potential as a material to degrade dye waste.