Effect of Citric acid leaching treatment on the production of Amorphous Silica from bamboo (bambusoideae) by sol-gel method

In Malaysia, low usage competencies of bamboo are consistently happened during the products developed cycle. Part from leaves and old culms of bamboo are often treated as waste and turn out being disposed at dumpsite or opens burning to reduce the waste. Bamboo contains a significant amount of silica (Si02) compound which is valuable raw material for various industrial applications. Based on previous studies, a strong acid leaching treatment was performed in the process of silica extraction. However, a strong acid leaching procedure is substantially harmful to the environment and humans. Thus, in this research, citric acid leaching treatment was employ to substitute the strong acids treatment. Besides, more environmental benign and economically effective method for producing Si02 from bamboo leaves and culms were developed. It has been proven that silica can be extracted from bamboo using citric acid leaching treatment at temperature 70°C - 80°C with reaction time of 60 minutes — 90 minutes with citric acid concentration of 0.5M, 1M and 2M followed by the sol gel method to synthesize the amorphous silica (xerogel). Based on XRF data, the purity of white powder silica extracted is more than 60% with lower impurities detected as higher concentration of citric acid used in extraction. The TGA curves proved that both silica obtained fro m are around bamboo leaves and culms required high temperature to decompose which 960°C. BET analysis shows that generated amorphous silica from low specific surface area which are at 41.136, 48.764 and 64.594 m2/g. bamboo leaves has Keywords: Bamboo, Silica, Citric Acid Leaching Treatment, Sol-gel Method