Characterization of Silica Extracted from Rice Husk by NIR Spectroscopy and its Application in Separation Science

Rice is one of the major crops and staple food of more than half of the world’s population. Its production generates an abundant by-product, namely rice husk (RH). Rice husk is used as a fuel for power generation. The rice husk ash (RHA) generated during combustion becomes an environmental pollutant and its disposal is difficult. In this work, rice husk was used to produce silica by burning in a furnace at 650°C for 4 hrs. The produced silica was characterized by Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and then used to prepare thin layer chromatography plates (TLC) for testing its efficiency in the separation of organic compounds. The NIR spectrum of rice husk ash showed the presence of combinatio…