Abstract
Photo-induced activity of hydroxyapatite synthesized from waste gypsum was investigated by photocatalytic decomposition of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Hydroxyapatite samples were synthesized by the reaction of gypsum and diammonium hydrogen phosphate. The decomposition of DMS on the hydroxyapatite under UV (254 nm) irradiation was ca. 68% in the one path reaction method. The hydroxyapatite sample was very active based on photo-induced excitation under UV irradiation. It was assumed that the crystallinity of the apatite structure would influence the photocatalytic activity from the X-ray diffraction studies. The higher the pre-treatment temperature for the hydroxyapatite samples was, the lower the decomposition of DMS under UV irradiation became.
