Rice husk-derived mesoporous biogenic silica nanoparticles for gravity chromatography

Devendra Shrestha; Tulsi Nayaju; M R Kandel; Raja Ram Pradhananga; Chan Hee Park; Cheol Sang Kim

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15142

Rice husk-derived mesoporous biogenic silica nanoparticles for gravity chromatography

Heliyon. 2023 Apr 1;9(4):e15142. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15142. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Devendra Shrestha^{1

2}, Tulsi Nayaju², M R Kandel¹, Raja Ram Pradhananga^{1

3}, Chan Hee Park^{2

4}, Cheol Sang Kim^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Amrit Science Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
² Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea.
³ Research Institute for Material Science and Nanotechnology (RIMSN), Kathmandu, Nepal.
⁴ Division of Mechanical Design Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

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 agricultural 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 technique. 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.

Keywords: Amorphous; Biogenic silica nanoparticles; Column chromatography; Rice husk silica; Sol-gel.