Abstract

• Silica aerogel has been synthesized from rice husk ash via water glass solution by using sol-gel method. The synthesized silica aerogel at different pH level are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to analyze the structure formation of silica aerogel. The function group of the products are characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The particle sizes of silica aerogel are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD result shows that the silica aerogel particles prepared at pH 7 has the capability to extract complete SiO2 from rice husk ash with a great quantity of amorphous silica. SEM result indicates that the particle size of the silica aerogel increases at pH 5 and pH 9 and decrease at pH 7. The results show that the synthesis of silica aerogel from rice husk ash has porous structure and the particle size of silica aerogel depend on the effect of pH level.