Abstract

• Giant bamboo (Wa-bo-gyi) is the largest member of the grass family in Myanmar. In this research, the preparation and characterization of the nanosilica extracted from bamboo leaves (Dendrocalamas giganteus Munro, Wa-bo-gyi) were studied. At first, bamboo leaves ash was prepared from bamboo leaves by calcination at various temperatures with different times. Characterization of bamboo leaves ash samples was carried out by using EDXRF, XRD, SEM and FT IR techniques. The XRD data for all of these synthesized samples showed the silica with nanosize. From EDXRF analysis, the presence of SiO2, K2O, P2O5, CaO of bamboo leaves was found. The maximum relative abundance of SiO2 was found to be 52.29 % at the calcination temperature of 1000 °C for 2 h. The physicochemical properties of the selected sample (calcined at 1000 °C for 2 h), were 0.37 % of moisture, 3.08 % of ash, 1.44 g/mL of bulk density and 10.03 pH of Silica xerogel powder was prepared from the selected sample by using 1 M NaOH and 6 M H2SO4 solution. The prepared silica powder was characterized by EDXRF, XRD, SEM and FT IR analyses. The particle size of xerogel was slightly increased (30.5 nm) and the relative abundance of silica was significantly promoted to 84.15 %. The selected sample was introduced into the formulation of cement. The quality of cement (soundness, normal consistency, setting time, compressive strength and tensile strength) improved when mixing with the selected ash sample.