Characterization and A Preliminary Study of TiO2 Synthesis from Lampung Iron Sand

The purpose of this study is to characterize Lampung iron sand and to conduct preliminary experiments on the TiO2 synthesis which can be used for the manufacturing of functional food packaging. The iron sand from South Lampung Regency, Lampung Province that will be utilized as raw material. The experiment was initiated by sieving the iron sand on 80, 100, 150, 200 and 325 mesh sieves. Analysis using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) to determine the element content and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to observe the mineralization of the iron sand was conducted. The experiment was carried out through the stages of leaching, precipitation, and calcination. Roasting was applied firstly by putting the iron sand into the muffle furnace for 5 hours at a temperature of 700°C. Followed by leaching using HCl for 48 hours and heated at 105°C with a stirring speed of 300 rpm. The leaching solution was filtered with filtrate and solid residue as products. The solid residue was then leached using 10% H2O2 solution. The leached filtrate was heated at 105°C for 40 minutes resulting TiO2 precipitates (powder). Further, the powder was calcined and characterized. Characterization of raw material using XRF shows the major elements of Fe, Ti, Mg, Si, Al and Ca. The highest Ti content is found in mesh 200 with 9.6%, while iron content is about 80.7%. While from the XRD analysis, it shows five mineral types namely magnetite (Fe3O4), Rhodonite (Mn, Fe, Mg, Ca) SiO3, Quart (SiO2), Ilmenite (FeOTiO2) and Rutile (TiO2). The preliminary experiment showed that the Ti content in the synthesized TiO2 powder is 21.2%. The purity of TiO2 is low due to the presence of Fe metal which is dissolved during leaching, so that prior to precipitation purification is needed to remove impurities such as iron and other metals.