CONTROLLED SYNTHESIS OF SILICA PARTICLES USING EXTRACTION-PRECIPITATION METHOD

The extraction-precipitation method has been a desired method of synthesizing silica particles. In this work, silica particles were synthesized from sugarcane bagasse using this method. The identity of the particles was determined with Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR), and the particle size was measured with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Smaller-sized silica particles were obtained by extracting silica with sodium hydroxide from the sugarcane bagasse and obtaining the precipitate by bringing the pH down. In order to increase the size, sodium hydroxide was again added to the silicate solution before the pH was brought down, and the obtained precipitate was heated to a higher degree Celsius. Its hydroxyl content was also reduced. Previous studies have revealed the potential of sodium hydroxide addition for silica particle increment using the Stober method. We reported here an increase in silica particle size with the aid of sodium hydroxide as a catalyst through a greener technique, the extraction-precipitation method.

CONTROLLED SYNTHESIS OF SILICA PARTICLES USING EXTRACTION-PRECIPITATION METHOD Keywords:

Silica microparticles , Silica Nanoparticles , FT-IR , SEM