SIMILARITY INDEX, INTERNET SOURCES, STUDENT PAPERS: PREPARATION OF S-DOPED TIO2 VIA SOL-GEL/ HYDROTHERMAL METHOD AND ITS ACTIVITY AS PHOTODEGRADATION OF RB05

TiO2 is classified as semiconductor materials that have excellent property as a catalyst, especially in the photodegradation of organic pollutants, i.e. dyes, phenolic compounds, etc. The previous researches that focused on the photoactivity of TiO2, mostly work under UV light due to it shows high activity and stable under UV light.1–3 The issues that were found during its applications, photoactivity of TiO2 is not fully effective when it utilized under solar light. Several methods have been developed to improve its performance under solar light.4–6 One of these efforts is through the doping technique. The doping technique also influences the bandgap of the doped materials with a range in the visible light area. As the dopant, either metal or nonmetal elements can be incorporated with the TiO2, it depends to the atomic radius between dopant and oxygen atom of TiO2. 7–10 The previous work about the doping process of TiO2 has reported results on the substitution of several elements, i.e. nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur.10,11 The incorporating of those elements into TiO2 showed a significant change in the photoactivity of materials, especially sulfur. S-doped TiO2 in the previous work has been prepared using calcination technique, sol-gel, hydrothermal
and in the supercritical condition in CS2/ethanol.12,13 From those several methods, the combination method between sol-gel and hydrothermal provides a simple and best method to obtain nanosized of doped TiO2 photocatalyst. Also, the photocatalyst of TiO2 that prepared using the hydrothermal method can have a different ratio between retail and amateurs depend on the preparation of raw material and temperature during hydrothermal. Based on the literature review, there have been few reports on the preparation of S-doped TiO2 using a hydrothermal method that assisted by the sol-gel method. In the present work, the S-doped TiO2 was prepared using a hydrothermal method that assisted by the sol-gel method. The photoactivity of the obtained S-doped TiO2 was evaluated for degradation of reactive black 05.