Abstract:
The current study showed utilization of locally available beach sand from Marine National Park in facileextraction of highly amorphous silica via a simple alkali fusion method. The purification of the silica sand wasdone using 6 N HCl solution to increase its purity. The method entailed formation of sodium silicate (Na
2
)
solution from silica sand, precipitation using HCl acid to form tetraortosilicate acid, Si(OH)
4
(silica gel) which isthen heated to form amorphous silica (SiO
2
). The percentage yield of the extracted silica was 35.0139±0.11%.
The extracted silica was characterized using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF), X-Ray Diffractometer(XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FT-IR). The XRF characterization revealed that theextracted silica content was 94.16±0.47 % which increased from 81.32±0.81% (Silica sand). The XRD resultsrevealed a highly crystalline quartz as the main component of silica sand. The XRD spectra of extracted silicashowed a broad diffraction peak at 2θ = 21.76
o
revealing its amorphous nature. The average particle size of theextracted silica was 45.15nm. The FT-IR characterization of the extracted silica showed hydroxyl (-OH) insilanol (Si-OH) and siloxane (Si-O-Si) as important functional groups. The results showed a low cost techniquefor the production of highly pure amorphous nanosized silica as a potential mineral that can be employed in vast
industrial fields.
SiO
3
