Physicochemical Properties of Mesoporous Organo-Silica Xerogels Fabricated through Organo Catalyst
Muthia Elma,
Anna Sumardi,
Adhe Paramita,
Aulia Rahma,
Aptar Eka Lestari,
Dede Heri Yuli Yanto,
Sutarto Hadi,
Zaini Lambri Assyaifi,
Sunardi,
Yanuardi Raharjo
Affiliations
Muthia Elma
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Anna Sumardi
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Adhe Paramita
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Aulia Rahma
Materials and Membranes Research Group (M2ReG), Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Aptar Eka Lestari
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Dede Heri Yuli Yanto
Research Center for Biomaterials, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jl. Raya Bogor Km.46, Cibinong Science Center, Cibinong, Bogor 16911, Indonesia
Sutarto Hadi
Mathematics Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin 70123, Indonesia
Zaini Lambri Assyaifi
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Sunardi
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jl. A. Yani KM 36, Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia
Yanuardi Raharjo
Membrane Science and Technology Research Group, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia
The physicochemical properties of organo-silica xerogels derived from organo catalyst were pervasively investigated, including the effect of one-step catalyst (citric acid) and two-step catalyst (acid-base), and also to observe the effect of sol pH of organo-silica xerogel toward the structure and deconvolution characteristic. The organo-silica xerogels were characterized by FTIR, TGA and nitrogen sorption to obtain the physicochemical properties. The silica sol–gel method was applied to processed materials by employing TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate) as the main precursor. The final molar ratio of organo-silica was 1:38:x:y:5 (TEOS:ethanol: citric acid: NH3:H2O) where x is citric acid concentration (0.1–10 × 10−2 M) and y is ammonia concentration (0 to 3 × 10−3 M). FTIR spectra shows that the one-step catalyst xerogel using citric acid was handing over the higher Si-O-Si concentration as well as Si-C bonding than the dual catalyst xerogels with the presence of a base catalyst. The results exhibited that the highest relative area ratio of silanol/siloxane were 0.2972 and 0.1262 for organo catalyst loading at pH 6 and 6.5 of organo-silica sols, respectively. On the other hand, the organo-silica matrices in this work showed high surface area 546 m2 g−1 pH 6.5 (0.07 × 10−2 N citric acid) with pore size ~2.9 nm. It is concluded that the xerogels have mesoporous structures, which are effective for further application to separate NaCl in water desalination.
