Chemical synthesis of nanostructured silica from Algerian diatomite

Abstract EN

In this research, we reported chemical and soft method for the purification of Algerian diatomite.

We discussed the effect of different parameters such as the temperature, pH and acid leaching, on the purity of purified diatomite.

We carried out comparative study by analyzing the morphology, the crystal quality and the chemical composition of the raw and purified diatomite using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), respectively.

We succeed, to purify the raw diatomite which contains 86% of silica to nanostructured silica with purity of 99,092%.

Suggested technic allowed the synthesis of nanostructured silica at slightly low temperature of 80°C using facile chemical method.

The resulting nanostructured silica has potential application for many applications.