Synthesis of Fe-TiO2 Composite as a Photocatalyst for Degradation of Methylene Blue

Synthesis and characterization of Fe-TiO2 composite as a photocatalyst in the photodegradation of methylene blue on visible light irradiation in a closed reactor have been carried out. Synthesis was conducted by the sol-gel method at room temperature using titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTiP) and iron (III) chloride as a precursor, followed by thermal treatment at a temperature of 500 ̊C. The characterizations were performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectrometry, UV-Vis diffuse reflactance spectrophotometry and fluorescence X-rays. The results showed that the Fe-TiO2 composite could be synthesized by sol-gel method at room temperature, followed by thermal treatment with the concentration of iron was 6% wt. Degradation of methylene blue have been carried out at pH 10 with the percentage degradation of 36% without irradiation and 99.5% under visible light irradiation for 3 hours.