Nanosilika dari Prekursor Silika Geotermal: Pengaruh Konsentrasi Surfaktan dan Dekomposisi Termal Pasca Sintesis

Abstract

Nanosilica is often used in many sectors, such as pharmacy, ceramics, electronics, etc. Silica from geothermal power plant’s solid waste is oneof  natural silica precursor that contain a lot of amorphous silica (~97% SiO₂). In this work sol-gel method was used to prepare nanoparticle. Surfactant was added  tothe sol phase to control the size of particles. The purpose of this work was to investigate the effects of surfactantconcentration ( 0,1% w/v, 0,2%w/v, and 0,4%w/v) on particle size of the resulting nanosilica and thermal decomposition of alkyl benzene sulfonate surfactant-remaining in the product-  following the synthesis process. Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) was used to analyze the size of particlesand thermal decomposition of the surfactant was measured using thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). The experimental resultsshowed that particle sizedecreases with increasing of surfactant concentration and the optimum concentration was 0,4% w/v. Decomposition temperature of the surfactant was about 330^o C.