Extraction of Soluble Sodium Silicate using Corn Cob Ash as a Silica Source

Abstract

Extraction of soluble sodium silicate was carried out in this study using corn cob ash as silica source and alkali as soda source. Initially, received corn cob was burnt in open air to obtain the corn cob ash. The obtained corn cob ash was then placed inside refractory crucible and further heating was carried out inside muffle furnace at the temperature of 600 0 C for 5hrs. The thermally treated corn cob ash was mixed with 3M conc. NAOH and boiled with a constant stirring in a heating glass vessel placed inside a thermostatic water bath at 80 0 C for 4hrs and 90 0 C for 3hrs respectively. Various analyses such as PH value, specific gravity, electrical conductivity, viscosity were conducted on the produced sodium silicate and the results were compared with the reference sodium silicate sample.