The impact of solvent concentration on the characteristic of silica from rice husk ash using sol gel method

Synthesis of silica particle was conducted using the sol gel method from Aceh Besar rice husk ash. Sol gel method is an environmental-friendly and easy process to extract silica particles (SiO2) that consists of two stages of hydrolysis and polycondensation. The aim of this research was to analyse the influence of variations in the solvent concentration (1 N, 1.5 N, 2 N, 2.5 N and 3 N) using the sol gel method on the characteristics of silica particle. The rice husk ash was refluxed using solvent (sodium hydroxide) and the acidification process was using hydrochloric acid (HCl). The result of this study indicated that the highest yield in treatment was using 3 N NaOH, which was 39.66 percent. Based on XRD result, the silica was in the crystalline phase and had a particle size of 13,59-41,56 nm and functional groups of silanol (Si-OH) and siloxane (Si-O-Si). Based on the result of SEM characterization, uneven and agglomerated particle shapes were obtained.