Cu2O/ZnO NANOCOMPOSITE AND GRAPHENE OXIDE WITH PHOTOCATALYSIS FOR TEXTILE DYES/DYE REDUCTION

Nanocomposite photocatalyst materials have been made from a mixture of raw materials for Cu2O nanoparticles, ZnO nanoparticles and graphene oxide (GO) through coprecipitation and hydrothermal methods with variations in the composition of Cu2O/ZnOnanocomposites before adding GO dopant, namely the ratio Cu2O:ZnO 1:1, 1:2 and 2 :1 and Cu2O/ZnO/GO nanocomposites after added GO with composition
variations of 1%, 3%, 5% and 10%. Sampling was carried out in two steps. The first step was the synthesis of Cu2O and ZnO nanoparticles using Cu(NO3)2.3H2O and Zn(NO3)2.6H2O precursors based on the coprecipitation method and graphene oxide derived from graphite oxide (pencil rods) using a modified hummer method. The second step is mixing Cu2O, ZnO, and GO nanoparticles using the hydrothermal method to form Cu2O/ZnO/GO nanocomposites which are then characterized including: physical properties with FESEM-EDS (surface morphology and elemental content), BET (specific surface area, pore volume and size). pores), and XRD (crystal structure and size of crystalline diameter), chemical properties with FTIR (functional groups), optical properties with Uv-Vis (absorbance value and energy gap), and photocatalytic performance properties with fotoluminescence (photocatalytic activity). The characterization results showed that the most optimum composition was Cu2O/ZnOnanocomposite with a ratio of 1:2 and the addition of 5% GO resulted in a specific surface area of 35.115 m2
/g with a pore radius of 1.9073 nm, a pore volume of 0.094 cm3/gr and a crystalline diameter of 0. .27368 nm has an absorbance value of 0.115, an energy gap of 1.85 eV and a degradation efficiency of 85.9% methylene blue under UV light from a halogen lamp for 120 minutes. The results of photocatalytic materials based on Cu2O/ZnO/GO nanocomposite can be applied to degrade methylene blue textile dye waste.