Abstract

Using rice husks pulverized by rotating knife cutter, the raw rice husk powder was solution treated by nitric and hydrochloric acids in order to separate phytolith from organic constituents. Because of the strong resistance of organic components of rice husk to acids, the raw powder had to be boiled in concentrated acids up to 300 min. By boiling in nitric acid for 60~120 min, all organic components were resolved while amorphous silica Powder of about 20 nm in size and of higher than 99.8% in purity was left behind. Inferior to the nitric acid, hydrochloric acid was not able to resolve organic component completely leaving unresolved matter of about 40% by weight even after 300 min of boiling. From the acid treatments and impurity analyses, it is considered that most of metallic elements in rice husks are combined to organic components that are easily soluble to acids.