The effect of calcination temperature on the texture of silica gel waste

In this work, the effect of temperature on the texture of silica gel waste is presented and water vapour adsorption in a different humidity is highlighted. It was found that silica gel waste is a mesoporous material with the parallel plates pores. Its specific surface area is equal to 4.61 m² g^?1, and the calculated total pore volume is equal to 9.01 × 10^?3 cm³ g^?1. The texture of silica gel waste changed during calcination in a 188–550 °C temperature interval: S_BET and ΣV_P increased to 11.32 m² g^?1 and 30.06 × 10^?3 cm³ g^?1, respectively. It was determined that the water vapour pressure influenced the mineralogical composition and the quantity of adsorbed water in the samples. The obtained results were confirmed by the differential scanning microcalorimetry, X-ray diffraction, BET and water vapour adsorption analysis data.