KARAKTERISTIK SILIKA SEKAM PADI DARI PROVINSI LAMPUNG YANG DIPEROLEH DENGAN METODA EKSTRAKSI

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the characteristics of silica extracted from rice husk obtained from rice farming region of Tanggamus, the Province of Lampung. The silica was obtained using sol-gel method, which involves extraction of silica using alkalis solution and gelation of the silica using acid solution. It was found that the highest yield was obtained from the extraction using 5% KOH solution with the extraction time of 60 minutes, and gelation pH of 7.0. Characterization of the silica using FTIR spectroscopy revealed the existence of several functional groups including hydroxyl and siloxane. Analysis of the samples using XRD method revealed that the sample is mainly amorphous, with additional phase of crystobalite as a minor phase. SEM analysis indicates the existence of various particle sizes distributed irregularly, which reflects that homogeneous sample has not been achieved in this study.