Synthesis and characterization of a nanocomposite NiO/SiO2 from a sustainable source of SiO2

The search for raw materials obtained from renewable sources is necessary for the sustainable development in the production of engineering materials. In this study, we present the hydrothermal synthesis of biogenic silica extracted from rice husk for the production of NiO/SiO2 nanocomposite by Pechini method and employed an alternative strategy for the use of tetraethylorthosilicate as precursor agent. The synthesized nanocomposite presents amorphous SiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in a NiO matrix as observed in the x-ray diffraction patterns and by scanning electron microscopy characterization. The average size of the crystallite measured by XRD was 11 nm. The formation of the aimed composite containing 83% of NiO crystalline phase and 17% of SiO2 in amorphous phase was confirmed by Infrared and Raman spectroscopic analyses. These results demonstrate that it is possible to develop synthetic routes to produce new materials using several raw materials from sustainable sources and thus reducing environmental impact.