The Renewable of Low Toxicity Gelcasting Porous Ceramic as Fe₂O₃ Catalyst Support on Phenol Photodegradation

Low toxicity gelcasting water-based method was conducted using a non-acrylamide system, with cassava starch and natural clay as poregenic agent and raw material, respectively, and the resulting porous ceramic was used as Fe₂O₃ catalyst support. The concentrations of cassava starch used were 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, and 9%, the sintering process was performed based on the results of TGA/DTA thermal analysis. In addition, the sol-gel coating method was used to impregnate the Fe₂O₃ catalyst into the porous ceramic. BET results show that the pores formed in the ceramic body are micro pores with a size range of 21.41-23.27 Å, hence the concentration of cassava starch does not affect the pore characteristics. The morphology of SEM results also indicated the presence of pore formation in the ceramic body. According to the quantitative XRD analysis, the cassava concentration affects the percentage of catalyst impregnated. The highest percentage of Fe₂O₃ catalyst on 7% cassava starch was 41.15% and the phase of the catalyst successfully impregnated was α-Fe₂O₃ with a rhombohedral structure. In addition, the highest percentage of phenol degradation was 59.15% with good performance after 8 times of recycling. In this study, we provide for the first time, utilization of Fe₂O₃-porous ceramics with a wonderful performance of recycling ability in the process of phenol photodegradation.