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A zirconia-based catalyst with controlled crystalline phases is synthesized through a simple thermal decomposition of a parent UiO-66 single precursor. The introduction of Ti(IV) and Hf(IV) cation into the Zr(IV) framework has been successfully obtained to tune the photocatalytic activity over methyl orange (MO) solution. Their resulting crystalline phases, morphologies, elemental analysis, band gap values, surface area, and photocatalytic degradation study over MO dye are presented and discussed. The tetragonal zirconia (t-ZrO2) catalyst exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity with 89% decoloration efficiency under UV irradiation (λ = 254 nm) for 300 min compared to m-ZrO2 (67%), the mixed phases (t-ZrO2 and m-ZrO2), as well as the synthesized mixed oxides ZrO2-MO2 (M = Ti or Hf), where the photocatalytic activities are 74% and 63%, respectively. This result is on par with commercially available anatase TiO2 and other reported t-ZrO2 catalysts.

This SO4/TiO2 catalyst as a heterogeneous acidic catalyst was synthesized in various concentrations of H2SO4. The activity and selectivity of the SO4/TiO2 catalyst on the dehydration reaction of ethanol to diethyl ether were studied as well. The SO4/TiO2 was prepared from TiO2 powder by wet impregnation method with a various aqueous solution of H2SO4 (1; 2; 3 M H2SO4) and calcination temperature (400, 500, and 600 °C) to obtain a catalyst with optimum acidity. The catalysts were characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM-EDX, SAA, TGA/DSC, and acidity test gravimetrically with ammonia. The liquid product of DEE was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) to analyze the selectivity of the catalyst. The catalyst TS-3-400 had the highest activity and selectivity in the dehydration reaction of ethanol to diethyl ether at a temperature of 225 °C, with a conversion of 51.83% and a DEE selectivity of 1.72%.