Preparation and Characterization of Rice Husk Ash and Carbon from Combustion of Raw Rice Husk

Rice production is a significant agricultural activity worldwide which provides food for human consumption and the generation of large amounts of raw rice husk (RRH) as a by-product in which the disposal has become a serious environmental concerns. The aim of this study is to prepare and characterize rice husk ash (RHA) and rice husk carbon (RHC) produced from raw rice husk (RRH). The RHA and RHC are prepared from of RRH by burning of RRH in a muffle furnace at varying temperature by combustion process. The RRH, RHA and RHC samples were characterized and quantified using analytical techniques such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Scanning- Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). The TGA results revealed that RRH, RHC and RHA samples have thermal stability at temperature which range from 222.40-327.6°C. The X-ray Diffraction (XRD) results identified four mineral phases for the samples RRH, RHC and RHA. The SEM images of the RRH, RHC and RHA samples revealed the spherical irregular particle morphology with different particle sizes and some agglomeration. The TEM further revealed the morphology of RRH, RHC and RHA to be spherical shape with particle sizes of 17.2 nm, 9.96 nm and 5.33 nm respectively. The FTIR adsorption spectra shows the stretching adsorption bands of functional groups in RRH, RHC and RHA with stretching and bending peaks of the samples from one form to another. The XRF results revealed the elemental composition of the samples RRH, RHC, and RHA revealed the elemental composition of SiO<sub>2</sub>, Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, CaO, MgO, and Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>. In conclusion, the RRH, RHC and RHA samples shows that products of the burning process have a higher quality than the raw samples.