Rice husk-derived mesoporous biogenic silica nanoparticles for gravity chromatography

Biogenic silica nanoparticle is a superb alternative to synthetic silica because of their highly active, polar, and porous nanostructure with a large interior area. Among the available agricul-tural bioresources, biogenic silica extracted from rice husks could be a simple, easily available, and cost-effective resource to use as the stationary phase for the column chromatographic tech-nique. In the present study, highly pure amorphous biogenic silica nanoparticles (bSNPs) were synthesized using rice husk by a controlled combustion route followed by the sol-gel method. The bSNPs show better performance for the separation and isolation of ortho-and para-nitrophenol and nitroaniline. The outstanding performance of the as-synthesized bSNPs is attributed to the high surface area, high porosity, and presence of Si-OH polar bonds. These preliminary findings imply that rice husk, an agricultural waste, could be an alternative source of silica and applicable as a stationary phase in column chromatography.

Automated summary

Biogenic silica nanoparticles extracted from rice husks are a promising alternative to synthetic silica for column chromatography due to their highly active, polar, and porous nanostructure. In this study, highly pure amorphous bSNPs synthesized from rice husks showed excellent performance in separating ortho- and para-nitrophenol and nitroaniline. These findings suggest that rice husks can serve as an alternative silica source for column chromatography.