Pemurnian Silikon Asal Arang Sekam Padi Menggunakan Magnesium dan Gas Nitrogen

Abstract

Rice husk charcoal is an agricultural waste containing 72% silica that is a potential alternative source of silicon. Silicon from silica derived from the husk was purified by reduction using magnesium and subsequently washing with HCl 3%. Oxygen in air is suspected to react with the magnesium during the reduction process, such that the silica form was still present in the reduction product. The objective of this research is to compare the purity of silicon obtained from silica reduction using magnesium under nitrogen gas flow and under ambient air flow. The nitrogen gas was used to avoid oxygen from reacting so the magnesium only reacted with the silica. The silicon was characterized using X-Ray Diffraction and data were analyzed using Match 2 software. The yield of silicon from the reduction process without nitrogen gas flow was 59%. This is smaller than the 64% silicon yield obtained from the reduction process using nitrogen gas flow. Application of nitrogen gas flow to the silica reduction process with magnesium increases the silicon yield and affecyed the silicon purity.