The effect of orange peel waste addition on ZnO characteristics and its ability to degrade methyl orange

The development of the textile industry in Indonesia is rapid. It cause serious environmental problems because the dyes used in the textile industry are synthetic that is azo dyes. Azo dyes are non-biodegradable substances that pollute the environment if not processed. One of the azo dyes that is often used in the textile industry is Methyl Orange. Photodegradation is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly method of removing synthetic dyes. This study will discuss the effect of adding orange peel on the characterization of ZnO and the ability to degrade Methyl Orange. The results of the FTIR spectra showed an absorption in the area of 1430-1455 cm-1 that means the orange peel had been impregnated into ZnO and the more ZnO as added on orange peel, it may reduce the number of -OH and CH groups of the ZnO/OP composite. Based on the results of characterization using XRD, it is known that the addition of orange peel into ZnO did not damage the crystal structure and crystal form. The crystal structure of ZnO/OP formed was wurtzite with a hexagonal shape. The results of the characterization using DR-UV showed that the band gap energy of ZnO/OP was smaller than ZnO and the more ZnO was added, the wider the band gap of energy. ZnO/OP with a variation of 1:25 can degrade Methyl Orange more than ZnO that was 73% in 60 minutes.