Physico-Chemical Study of Silica Rocks from the East Coast Malaysia Region for Crystal Glass Application

Abstract

The main objective of the current work is to recover SiO 2 various acid concentrations, scrubbing time, and attrition impeller speed for crystal glass application. Silica rocks were treated using a physico-chemical method involving physical separation method using citric and sulphuric acids as the reagents. Low acid concentration range of 1%-2% and variable scrubbing time of 10, 20, and 30 min were investigated. The microstructure, phase, and particle size of the silica rocks were determined after scrubbing process. Citric acid was found effective in improving the purity of SiO 2 to 99.8% at 0.75% concentration, via a 20 min scrubbing process operated at 1,250 rpm (rotations per minute). The phase structure and morphology of the recovered SiO 2 were confirmed as trigonal crystal structure with small and irregular shape. To date, studies on the processing of silica rock using organic acid are yet very limited.