PRECIPITATION OF AMORPHOUS SiO2 PARTICLES AND THEIR PROPERTIES

The experimental conditions were optimized for the synthesis of amorphous SiO2 particles by the reaction of neutralization of sodium silicate solution with H2SO4 solution. Amorphous SiO2 particles were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDS and microelectrophoresis. The amorphous peak was located at 20 = 21.8 degrees in the XRD pattern. Primary SiO2 particles were similar to 15 to similar to 30 nm in size and they aggregated into bigger particles. Amorphous SiO2 particles showed a specific surface area up to 130 m(2)g(-1), dependent on the parameters of the precipitation process. The EDS spectrum of amorphous SiO2 particles did not show contamination with sulfate or other ions, which cannot be excluded in traces. pH(zpc) =1.7 was obtained by microelectrophoresis.