Investigation of surfactant effect during synthesis of magnesium oxide nanoparticles from bittern using ultrasonic destruction process

Abstract

Magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles have been widely used in a variety of applications because of their good surface reactivity. Magnesium oxide from bittern has a larger surface area compared to magnesium oxide from calcined magnesite and magnesium ions precipitation from bittern using sodium hydroxide has higher purity than using calcium hydroxide or ammonium hydroxide. In this research, sodium hydroxide was added to a bittern solution obtaining magnesium hydroxide precipitate, followed by the calcination process to produce magnesium oxide. Nano magnesium oxide was synthesized by the ultrasonic destruction process using ethanol and 2-propanol as media. In this study, sonication time and particle concentration effect on the ultrasonic destruction process were investigated. During the process, the sonication time was varied between 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 minutes while the magnesium oxide concentration was varied between 1 %, 2 %, and 3 %. Increasing sonication time and particle concentration will decrease the particle size. The previous study shows that particles with very small sizes tend to have an agglomeration effect. The aim of this work is to optimize nano magnesium oxide production from bittern. Surfactant addition was also studied to prevent agglomeration between particles. Four types of surfactant namely anionic (sodium lauryl sulfate), cationic (cetyl tri-methyl-ammonium bromide), amphoteric (fatty acid amido alkyl betaine), and non-ionic (nonylphenol 10 ethoxylated) with a concentration of 1 % and a volume of 0.125 ml were added during the second ultrasonic destruction process. All types of surfactants have a positive effect to prevent agglomeration during the ultrasonic destruction process, with the amphoteric surfactant having the highest performance