Indian Science Cruiser

Saikat Maitra ¹, Soumya Mukherjee ², Vinod Kumar Yadav ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Ceramic Technology, Government College of Engineering and Ceramic Technology, Kolkata-700010, IN
2 Department of Mechanical & Automation Engineering, Amity University, Kolkata-700135, IN

Abstract

India produces annually 120 million tonnes of paddy. From the paddy growth, around 24 million tons of rice husk and 4.4 million tons of Rice Hush Ash are produced every year. Abundant silicon is observed to be contained within the agricultural biomass of rice husk. In the present article, nano-silica preparation from rice husk ash is carried using dissolution-precipitation technique which is a function of acid treatment, sodium silicate concentration, pH, aging temperature, aging time to establish optimum conditions for synthesis. The experimental process is carried by purging of carbon dioxide in alkaline solutions. Initially, nano amorphous silica was obtained after calcinations of rice husk ash at 600⁰C, 700⁰C, 800⁰C for 2 hrs. Calcinations results in removal of volatile components. Calcined RHA was mixed with alkali solution to produce sodium silicate solution and then precipitated silica was obtained by the neutralization of sodium silicate solution with carbon dioxide purging. Extracted precipitated silica particles were characterized by XRD, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and SEM for phase determinations, bonding formations and morphological features.

Keywords

Rice Husk Ash, Nano Silica, Precipitated Method, Alkali Extraction etc.

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