Fadhil Figo Ardiansyah, M. Samsul Ma’arif, Agus Mifthakhul Riska, Faiq Fadlilah, Mohamad Wafiq Nafii Alfan, Lydia Rohmawati
Water pollution is environmental pollution caused by wastewater, resulting in microbial contamination and changing the color of water, which can cause many diseases. One of the efforts to reduce water pollution is with semiconductor photocatalysts found in ZnO/MgO nanocomposites. ZnO and MgO materials can be from natural materials, namely pineapple peel (Ananas comosus L), to produce ZnO and dolomite extracted to produce MgO. Fabrication of ZnO/MgO nanocomposite uses a coprecipitation method, which involves mixing zinc acetate dihydrate with pineapple peel solution and stirring with MgO from dolomite for three hours. The result was added with NaOH until a precipitate was formed, then washed with distilled water and calcined at 510°C for 1 hour. In this study, ZnO/MgO nanocomposites were varied with the composition of 1:1, 1:3, and 1:4. The synthesized ZnO/MgO nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) to determine the primary phase, morphology, and grain size of the ZnO/MgO nanocomposite. The characterization results show the main phases in ZnO/MgO nanocomposites are ZnO (wurtzite) and MgO (periclase) with the average crystallite size of 27.19 (1:1), 19.73 (1:3), and 15.75 (1:4) nm. The morphology of ZnO/MgO nanocomposites is uniform and scaly, with the average grain size of ZnO/MgO nanocomposites with a composition of 67 (1:1), 85 (1:3), 98 (1:4) nm. With the production of this ZnO/MgO nanocomposite, it is expected to be used as a potential photocatalyst material in wastewater treatment, especially in the industrial field. © 2024 Author(s).
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Surabaya State University, East Java, Surabaya, 60231, Indonesia; Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Surabaya State University, East Java, Surabaya, 60231, Indonesia
