Oxidation of phenol using silica nanoparticle from rice husk ash as a catalyst; effect of temperature

Rice husk, often overlooked as agricultural waste, harbours significant potential across diverse industries, serving as a source of silica, biofuel, animal bedding, construction materials, soil amendment, water filtration media, insulation, and biodegradable products. The surplus of rice husk (RH) poses a significant global concern due to its underutilization. Often, RH is disposed of through open burning, resulting in adverse environmental and health effects. Phenol is a common industrial chemical used in the production of plastics, resins, and other synthetic materials. Phenol can be released into the environment through industrial processes, waste disposal, and accidental spills. It can have adverse effects on aquatic life, particularly fish, and can contaminate soil and groundwater. Rice husk was treated by Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrochloric Acid as a leaching agent and undergo solvent extraction method. Several characterizations have been done to analyse the chemical properties of rice husk such as FTIR, XRD, SEM/EDX and GCMS for product of oxidation of phenol. The objectives of this study are to extract the silica from rice husk by using the sol-gel method, to characterize the catalyst produced by FTIR spectroscopy, Powder X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), to study the catalytic activity of silica on the oxidation of phenol by using different temperatures. This study proves that 75 °C is the optimum temperature for the catalyst to interact with the oxidation of phenol.