Extraction of biosilica from date palm biomass ash and its application in photocatalysis

There is an emerging trend in the valorization of biomass waste for the development of value-added products. Date palm biomass is an extensively available bioresource in Saudi Arabia. In date palm farms, the biomass residues are usually burnt, and a lot of ash is generated. Biomass ash is rich in silica, which is a valuable material used in a wide range of applications. This study explores the extraction of pure silica nanoparticles from date palm biomass ash (DPBA) and its application in photocatalysis. A chemical sol–gel method or thermal combustion method was employed for the extraction of silica. The extracted silica nanoparticles were characterized by EDX, FT-IR, XRD, SEM, BET, and TGA. FT-IR spectra of extracted biosilica samples displayed only the characteristic peaks corresponding to the silica functional groups. The chemically synthesized biosilica sample exhibited higher purity (98 %) and higher surface area (376 m²/g) compared to the thermally prepared biosilica samples. The SEM analysis revealed the presence of spherical-shaped silica particles of an average diameter of 93 nm in chemically extracted biosilica and 208 nm in thermally extracted biosilica. The newly extracted biosilica samples were tested for the photodegradation of the bromophenol blue dye in water. The dye degradation efficiency of chemically prepared biosilica sample was 82 % and that of thermally prepared biosilica sample was 74 %. The relatively higher degradation efficiency of BS-chemical could be due to its higher surface area and smaller particle size, and also due to the presence of lots of surface defects in this fully amorphous biosilica.