Synthesis and Characterization of Silica Aerogel from Rice Husk with Ambient Pressure Drying Method

Abstract Rice husk has become global concern due to the environmental problem since it has been dumped and open burned that contributed to the emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Therefore, utilization of rice husk to other useable product such as silica aerogel for adsorption has been study recently due to the silica content in rice husk is about 60% and this material is sustainable and cost effective. Silica aerogel was prepared from rice husk ash and dried by using ambient pressure drying method with addition of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) due to its capability to prevent the gel from crack and increase the porosity of gel to increase the capacity of adsorption process. The silica aerogel was further characterized by using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Elemental Anaylzer (EA) and Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM). The results show that the silica aerogel was successfully synthesized using rice husk ash. The FTIR studies reveal that silica aerogel produced consist of amorphous silica with Si-O-Si bonding and stretching’s. From EA analysis, the carbon in the rice husk decreasing when turn into silica aerogel due to the burning of carbon content in the preparation of silica. The SEM studies confirm that the silica aerogel has a porous structure and has ability to for the application adsorption process such as carbon dioxide adsorption, methylene blue adsorption and others application.