Preparation and Characterization of Rice Husk based Alumina and its Applications

Rice husk is an abundantly available waste material in all rice producing countries. In certain regions, it is sometimes used as a fuel for parboiling paddy in the rice mills. The partially burnt rice husk in turn contributes to more environmental pollution. There have been efforts not only to overcome this but also to find value addition to these wastes using them as secondary source of materials. The organic materials in rice husk consist of celluloses (5560 wt. %, including cellulose and hemicellulose) and lignin (22 wt. %). Approximately one-fifth of the ash is obtained on burning rice husk in air. The ash contains greater than90 % silica by mass with minor amounts of metallic elements. Because the ash is obtained as a fine powder, it does not require further grinding [8], making it the most economical source of nanoscale silica. Other agro-product used is jute fiber which is used for synthesis of alumina fiber. The incorporation of porosity within a tailored structure gives porous ceramics many intrinsic properties such as high Permeability, high surface area, and good insulating characteristics. Porous ceramics have found a wide variety of applications including as lters, membranes, sensors, catalyst carriers, piezoelectric ceramics, biomedical and construction materials. In the present work we have Prepared sample, a composition consisting of 80 % Alumina powder, 10 % Rice husk and 10 % of sucrose solution was taken as binder and we have prepared 4 different samples 1 with pure Alumina and 3 with the above compositions but with different Size of Rice husk particle (microns) 75, 320, and 425 respectively. XRD, SEM, relative density and flexural strength of all samples have been studied.