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
Affiliations
Devendra Shrestha
Amrit Science Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal; Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
Tulsi Nayaju
Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
Amrit Science Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal; Research Institute for Material Science and Nanotechnology (RIMSN), Kathmandu, Nepal; Corresponding author. Amrit Science Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Chan Hee Park
Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea; Division of Mechanical Design Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea; Corresponding author. Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea.
Cheol Sang Kim
Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea; Division of Mechanical Design Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea; Corresponding author. Department of Bionanotechnology and Bioconvergence Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea.
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.
