SYNTHESIS AND APPLICATION OF SILICA GEL BASED ON MOUNT SINABUNG FLY ASH FOR Cd(II) REMOVAL WITH FIXED BED COLUMN

Synthesis of silica gel base on Mount Sinabung’s volcanic ash taken from different villages, was carried out. The purposes of this research are to synthesis and characterized by silica gel which was generated base on ash. The method of this research is a sol-gel method. The silica gel w as characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Barret Emmet Teller (BET) respectively. The silica gel consists of Si-O-Si and Si-OH groups. XRD data also shows that silica is amorphous. BET data show that the surface area of silica gel is 374.994 m²/g. A fix bed Column of silica gel was used for the removal of Cd(II). The adsorption column used has a diameter of 1.7cm and is filled with 0.5g of silica. the optimum adsorption capacity is: flow rate 4mL / min (21,194 mg / g). The initial optimum concentration is 24 ppm (21.632 mg / g). The optimum pH is pH 6, (21.848 mg / g). The experiment result showed silica adsorbent effective for removal Cadmium.