Effect of calcination temperature of Zinc Oxide catalyst in photocatalytic degradation of 2,4,6-trichlorophenols using UV light

2,4,6-Trichlorophenols (2,4,6-TCP) is one of the chlorophenols compound that have a highest toxicity. It carcinogen to human could cause blood and liver cancer throughout the drinking water and foods. Thus, the photocatalytic degradation of 2,4,6-TCP by using UV light and enhance by using Zinc Oxide are needed. The effect of different concentration of 2,4,6-TCP which are 10 ppm and 40 ppm and calcination temperature of catalyst i.e 400ᵒC, 500ᵒC and 600ᵒC were investigated. The characterization of ZnO at different calcination temperature was performed by using Thermogravimetric (TGA) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The percentage degradation was measured by using HPLC instrument after exposed the 2,4,6-TCP at concentration of 10 ppm and 40ppm with ZnO catalyst under UV light for 6 hours. Therefore, the results show the weight loss and BET surface area decreased as the calcination temperature increased which is from 400ᵒC to 600ᵒC attribute to high thermal stability and has agglomerated particles in ZnO. The optimum degradation of 2,4,6-TCP for 10 ppm is 97.54% at 4 hours while for 40 ppm is 96.83% at 6 hours exposed to UV light at 600ᵒC of calcination temperature of Zinc Oxide. It shows that ZnO catalyst at high calcination temperature lead to more effective in photocatalytic degradation of 2,4,6-TCP under UV light.