Isolation and Characterisation of High Grade Nanosilicon from Coastal Landform in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The application of silicon and silicon based materials in industries and optoelectronic devices cannot be over emphasized due to their unique properties. The availability of high grade silicon has been subject of interest for manufacturers and industrialist as the material has from discovery been very much insufficient to cater for the numerous demands for different uses and utilization. Numerous efforts have been put together to adapt the properties of silicon through the manufacture and fabrication of semiconductor compounds to replace silicon in functionality. Notwithstanding, the quest for more silicon in the environment is yet unabated. This research centers on the isolation and characterisation of high grade nanosilicon from coastal landform in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria due to the attractive nature of the landforms in terms of colour and texture. Sand from the selected study area were categorised into different forms according to their colour and silicon isolated using the magnesiothermic reduction while the nanosilicon was obtained using an appropriate ball milling process. The morphology of nanosilicon from Zion, Micheal-Ugbonla, and Oluwa Glass coastal landforms shows an agglomeration of particles with irregular shapes having average particle sizes of 58.98 nm, 77.82 nm, and 37.27 nm, respectively. The XRD spectra of the nanosilicon showed sharp, distinct peaks that indicate crystallinity of the samples. The percentages of nanosilicon value obtained ranges from 65.23%-80.30% and considered high enough to find specific useful industrial applications in lithium ion batteries, biomedical devices, opto electronic device utilization and computer industries.

Synthesis and characterization of silica xerogel and aerogel from rice husk ash and pulverized beach sand via sol-gel route

“…Figure 3 shows the XRD patterns of the silica xerogels (RHX), (BSX) and aerogels (RHA), (BSA), synthesized from rice husk and beach sand, respectively. Several sharp diffraction peaks could be observed, revealing that the produced materials are crystalline in nature [14]. The RHA and BSX exhibit a broad hump around 2θ of 20 -24 o , which is an attribute of the amorphous phase of silicon [11,15].…”

“…( 2)). The Scherer method is the most simplified formulation for crystallite analysis [10,14] and shows that the peak width is inversely proportional to crystallite size. On the other hand, W -H method assume that the diffraction line broadening is traceable not only to crystallite size but also to strain contribution and varies quite differently with respect to Bragg angle [24].…”

Qualitative Analysis of High Grade Nanosilicon Obtained From Coastal Landform in Ese Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria

“…To ensure effective reaction, 16.0 g of silica sand and 15.0 g of magnesium powder (180 µm) were thoroughly mixed together. This was then put into a crucible and heated for 30 minutes at 800 o C (Onojah et al, 2012;Vazeed et al, 2015 andOluyamo et al, 2023). The samples were then allowed to gradually cool to room temperature.…”

“…Magnesium is used as a reducing agent in the process of extracting silicon from sand. Recent interest has been focused to magnesiothermic reduction due its noticeably lower working temperatures (650 o C) (Favors, et al, 2014, Oluyamo, et al, 2023. The manufacture of silicon from sand by using magnesium as a reducing agent was primarily investigated as a potential anode material that might be used for rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries.…”

Characterization of quartz sand deposits from Al Qaryatyien area in Syria

“…The big interest in silicon and various uses of silica made silica deposits that have good specifications and a considerable amount of quartz content of great importance, and this led it to be the aim of many researchers around the world that dealt with the characterization of sand in those deposits and study the physicochemical properties and its structural composition, generally or according to subsequent use. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”