A facile route to preparation of high purity nanoporous silica from acid-leached residue of serpentine.

Abstract

As the current cost of mineral carbonation is too high for an economically viable industrial process, it is desirable to produce value-added products from CO2 mineralization process. In this work, a facile and cost-effective process was developed for the production of high purity SiO2 from acid-leached serpentine residue. The Si extraction rate is fast even under ambient conditions due to the highly defective structure of the residue. The reaction kinetics were studied and it was found that the Si extraction rate was under a combination of chemical reaction control and film diffusion control. The SiO2 sample prepared has high purity with a nanoporous structure, which renders it a potential candidate for applications such as an adsorbent and a catalyst support.