The Study of Thermal Decomposition of Rice Husk in Silica Production: The Effect of Hydrochloric Acid Leaching

Abstract

The effect of hydrochloric acid leaching on thermal decomposition process and morphology of the rice husk in silica production have been investigated. Amorphous silica can be obtained by thermal decomposition of rice husk in acid solution. The aim of this study is to investigate the stages of thermal decomposition of rice husk and its morphology. In this work, thermal decomposition of rice husk has been investigated in neutral and acid solution (hydrocloric acid 1%v/v, 3%v/v). The thermal decomposition study was performed at 225°c, 450°c, 700°c. The thermal behavior were investigated using DSC while the microstructure and properties of rice husk were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD. The results showed that the pre-treatment of the rice husk with acid leaching accelerated thermal decomposition of organic components at slight lower temperature as showed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. This knowledge may provide better insight in order to obtain high grade amorphous silica.