Comparative Study of Structure of Silica Gels from Different Sources

The medium-range-network structure of silicas from different sources was comparatively examined by X-ray diffraction, IR and NMR analyses. Silica gels made through the conventional sol-gel route were found to have a different structure from silica glass, and considered to be composed of 4-fold siloxane ring units, irrespective of preparation conditions. Amorphous silicas in rice-hulls and bamboo leaves showed structure data close to silica glass, being suggested to consist mainly of 6-fold siloxane ring units. The modified sol-gel method, in which siloxane oligomers containing cyclic siloxane tetramers may have been ring-opened and polymerized under the catalytic reaction of NaOH or NH₄F in the water-free solution, provided the silica gel of which structure was very similar to silica glass.