Antara semikonduktor, nanohematit yang mempunyai jurang jalur tenaga yang lebih rendah berpotensi menggantikan titanium dioksida untuk menjadi sebagai pemangkin dalam rawatan fotokatalis air sisa farmaseutikal. Kecekapan penyingkiran terhadap sebatian farmaseutikal manusia dengan menggunakan kaedah fotokatalisis telah dikaji secara meluas. Kewujudan farmaseutikal di Sungai Langat, Malaysia telah dibuktikan oleh penyelidik. Walau bagaimanapun, rawatan untuk penyingkiran farmaseutikal tidak dapat dilengkapkan dalam sistem rawatan konvensional. Dalam kajian ini, nanohematit telah berjaya disintesis dengan menggunakan kaedah pemendakan dan diikuti dengan pengkalsinan. Morfologi permukaan, saiz zarah, dan komposisi nanohematit ditentukan dengan Mikroskop Elektron Pengimbas (SEM) dengan tenaga serakan sinar-X spectrometri (SEM/EDX). Asetaminofen (parasetamol), satu pencemar farmaseutikal yang dipilih jadi model kontaminan untuk menilai prestasi fotokatalitik nanohematit yang disintesis. Pretasi degradasi acetaminophen telah dijalankan dalam fotokatalisis proses dengan kehadiran nanohematit sebagai pemangkin. Dalam kajian ini, terdapat dua fotokatalitik proses cubaan saja yang telah dijalankan. Kecekapan penyingkiran acetaminophen dengan menggunakan nanohematit sebagai pemangkin dalam fotokatalisis ialah hampir kosong. Oleh demikian, rawatan lain seperti fotolisis, hidrolisis dan penjerapan telah dijalankan untuk menilai fotokatalisis proses. Kemungkinan penggunaan nanohematit untuk menyingkir acetaminophen tidak tinggi.
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Among the semiconductors, nanohematite with lower energy band gap had the potential to replace the titanium dioxide to be a photocatalyst in the photocatalysis in order to treat the pharmaceutical wastewater. Removal efficiency towards human pharmaceutical compounds by photocatalysis has been widely investigated. Existence of pharmaceuticals in the Langat River, Malaysia was being proved by researcher. However, treatment for pharmaceuticals elimination did not equipped in the conventional treatment systems. In this study, nanohematite, α--Fe2O3 has been successfully synthesized by using precipitation method and followed by calcinations. The surface morphology, particle size and composition of nanohematite were determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). Acetaminophen (paracetamol), a pharmaceutical pollutant was chosen as model contaminant to evaluate the photocatalytic performance of the synthesized nanohematite. Degradation performance of acetaminophen was carried out in the presence of nanohematite α-Fe2O3. There were only two trial of photocatalysis process have been done in this study. The removal efficiency of the acetaminophen by using nanohematite as catalyst in photocatalysis is almost zero. Therefore, other treatment such as photolysis, hydrolysis and adsorption were conducted in order to evaluate the photocatalysis process. The possibility of using nanohematite in removing acetaminophen is not high.
Synthesis of nanohematite for photocatalysis in removing acetaminophen / Cheah Siew Cheng