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Study on extraction of silica from rice husk by sol–gel method and its application in catalytic decomposition of methane

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Abstract

In order to solve the pollution problem of agricultural waste and realize the harmlessness, reduction and resource of abandoned rice husk, silica was successfully extracted from rice husk by sol–gel method and used for methane decomposition to produce hydrogen. The effects of reaction temperature and mass fraction of sodium carbonate on the yield of silica were studied. When the reaction temperature was 120℃ and Na2CO3 was 9 wt.%, the yield of silica was 52.3%. The effects of acid on the pyrolysis behavior of rice husk and the purity and the specific surface area of derived silica were investigated. The results showed that the thermal stability of rice husk and the purity of SiO2 were improved after acid pretreatment. Compared with the silica sample prepared without acid pretreatment (4.7m2/g), the specific surface area of the silicon dioxide pretreated by HAc (SiO2-HAc) increased to 27m2/g. Rice husk-derived silica was used as a catalyst to produce hydrogen from methane decomposition, SiO2-HAc showed good catalytic activity, and the conversion of methane increased from 17.01% to 38.83%. This change was attributed to the formation of –Si‒C‒ species, which promoted the decomposition of methane. On this basis, Ni/SiO2-HCl and Ni/SiO2-HAc catalysts were prepared by loading metal Ni on the surface of rice husk-derived silica, and the conversion of methane increased to 74.33% and 60.73%, respectively.

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Data availability

All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51676081), Wuhan Enterprise Technology Innovation Projects (2019020702011359; 2020020602012150), and the 111 Project B17019.

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  1. Chemistry College in Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Rui Zhao, Na Xiao, Yufei Liu, Wei Zhan & Zhengshun Wu

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The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors; the role(s) of all authors are as follows:

Na Xiao helped in resources, software calculation, data curation;

Yufei Liu performed writing—reviewing and editing;

Wei Zhan contributed to visualization, investigation, project administration;

Zhengshun Wu helped in supervision and formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Zhengshun Wu.

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Zhao, R., Xiao, N., Liu, Y. et al. Study on extraction of silica from rice husk by sol–gel method and its application in catalytic decomposition of methane. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 10067–10083 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-03180-y

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