A New Approach of Obtaining Sodium Metasilicate from Dealuminated Kaolin for The Synthesis of Amorphous Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles

Silicon Dioxide nanoparticles of high purity was synthesized using a novel technique of obtaining sodium metasilicate from de-aluminated metakaolin. The process involved taking the de-aluminated metakaolin through several recrystallization steps to form sodium metasilicate. This was then converted into silicon dioxide nanoparticles using the sol gel technique. The nanoparticles were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV-visible optical absorption spectroscopy. The results from all the characterization techniques confirmed that the synthesized product was amorphous silicon dioxide nanoparticles with a high level of purity. This study gives an alternate pathway for obtaining sodium metasilicate from de-aluminated metakaolin for the synthesis of amorphous silicon dioxide nanoparticles for industrial applications.