Abstract:
Silica is one of the important chemical widely used in manufacturing sectors for different
applications. Some of the applications of silica are in detergents and cleaners as extenders, in
rubber and tire as fillers, in shoe sols, Ink-receptive Coatings, adsorptive, adhesive and others.
As the commercial silica is produced from non-renewable, and there are some ongoing issues
with health hazard due to the crystalline structure of the raw material which is quartz and high
emission of carbon dioxide and waste water, the purpose of this research was to develop bio
based silica using corn cob and corn stalk as a renewable feed stock. This study reports
preparation of silica from corn cob and corn stalk by sol-gel method. The process of bio silica
production includes leaching of corncob and corn stalk with concentrated HCl acid. The treated
corn cob and corn stalk was decomposed thermally at ashing temperature 6500
c for 3hours .The
ash was treated with NaOH solution at concentration 2.5M,extraction time 90min and extraction
temperature 600
c prior to acidification in order to extract silica in the form of sodium silicate
solution(SSS).Physicochemical properties of extracted silica were determined by FTIR and XRD
analysis.
