Resumen
In 21st century, world?s limited water resources and its improper management had brought to a global challenge. Global water security was adversely affected due to the exploitation of water resource by human beings. Human activities and expanding industrialisation in almost every country had caused water pollution worldwide and affected the sustainability of water resources. In this context, textile industry being one of the major industries in Malaysia had contributed over hundred million of revenue to Malaysia?s economy and it also produced significant amount of wastewater (mostly organic dye) leading to water pollution problem. Although there were several techniques available to treat the waste stream, they were not capable to effectively destroy the waste produced. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant (dye) in the presence of titanium dioxide photocatalyst immobilised on biomass derived cellulose. Cellulose was first extracted from oil palm empty fruit bunch by undergoing wax removal, acid and alkali treatment processes. Then, titanium dioxide photocatalyst was synthesised and immobilised on the cellulose by using hydrothermal method. After conducting the experiments, it was discovered that 50 wt.% of titanium dioxides immobilised on cellulose gave the highest photocatalytic dye degradation efficiency of 78.27 % in 1 h with catalyst concentration of 0.9 g/L, an initial dye concentration of 20 ppm, solution pH of 5 and a solution temperature of 27. This study proved that this high-performing catalyst could provide a more sustainable and greener pathway for photocatalytic degradation of pollutants.