INVESTIGASI DAYA SERAP SILIKA GEL SEKAM PADI DAN SILIKA GEL KONVENSIONAL

Abstract

In Indonesia, farmers usually use rice husks as organic fertilizer, but some are just thrown away. This causes rice husks to become waste generated from agriculture. This study aims to reduce rice husk waste while at the same time knowing the comparison of the absorption capacity of rice husk silica gel and conventional silica gel. Silica from rice husk was extracted using 4% NaOH solution and made a sol gel by adding 32% HCl solution. Based on the research results, rice husk silica gel has a greater absorption capacity than conventional silica gel at 30 and 40 minutes of immersion. For soaking times of 10, 20 and 50 minutes, conventional silica gel has greater absorption. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the longer the silica immersion time, the greater the amount of absorption produced by silica.