(27/11/2022) – Prof.Hadiyanto’s Student Team just got ” Best Prototype ” in Chemical Engineering Research Competition (CERco) Creation 2022 held in Semarang, Indonesia by the Department of Chemical Engineering , Diponegoro University.
Did you know that the metal, automotive, food, petrochemical, and textile industrial processes in the world all produce oily waste? If this oily waste is released into the environment without processing it will poison animals, plants and the surrounding ecosystem. Membranes are an alternative for oily waste treatment with the principle of filtration. However, this process is still constrained by poor membrane performance due to fouling and high production costs. Therefore, the development of membranes for oily waste treatment is very important to implement.
Diponegoro University Chemical Engineering students (Vania Archardiva, Ikhsan Masykur, and Martino) who were guided by Andono Kusuma Jati. S.T. and under supervision and guidance of Prof.Dr.Hadiyanto.S.T.,M.Sc.IPU. and was able to develop a solution to this oily waste problem. They made Superhydrophilic Cotton Fabric Based Membrane which is coated with silica and Green Synthesized Nano TiO2 – UV Light.
The results showed that the greater the concentration of nano TiO2, the more hydrophilic the surface of the membrane would be because the more hydroxyl groups (OH) were able to adsorb water molecules so that the contact angle became smaller. The longer the dip-coating process, the more nano-TiO2 molecules that can attach and form Ti-O-Si bonds so that the membrane surface becomes more hydrophilic and water passes through the membrane much more easily. However, at high concentrations of nano-TiO2 the membrane pores get smaller and cause fouling. The longer the UV-treatment process, the better the mechanical robustness of the membrane due to the formation of hydrogen bonds where this chemical bond is one of the strongest, the more hydrogen bonds of nano-TiO2 molecules the stronger it will stick to the cotton fabric. The nano-TiO2 coating can effectively reduce methylene blue dye. Where the mechanism used is the formation of superoxide radical anion and OH* which is proportional to the increase in the concentration of nano-TiO2 and the duration of the UV-treatment process.
(Editor : Andono Kusuma Jati,S.T.)