Publication: Processing of river sand
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Date
2024-08-01
Authors
Nur Hajar Binti Sa’aban
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Abstract
process of removing impurities from the silica sand sample. The silica sand sample was taken from a river in Terengganu, Malaysia. At least 95% of silicon dioxide (SiO2) is contained in silica sand to be classified as high-grade silica sand while silica sand with less than 95% silicon dioxide is called regular silica sand. High grade silica sand has many uses in industries such as glassmaking. The presence of impurities in silica sand such as aluminium, feldspar and iron can affect the grade of silica sand. The presence of these impurities can exist in the state of coating the silica sand sample and vice versa. This causes the color of the sand to darken slightly and hard to detect by using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) machine, X-ray Fluoresence (XRF) machine and even Optical Microscopic (OM) machine. This causes silica sand to not be used efficiently. To obtain satisfactory results, the selection of a machine to separate impurities from silica sand is not sufficient to obtain maximum results. This is because the impurities coating around the silica sand sample cannot be removed without the help of physical and chemical energy. By applying XRF analysis and XRD analysis sample characteristics can be obtained. Minerals and elements found in the sample can be detected through this method. Through this analysis, the next experiment can be planned and carried out to obtain the desired results. The selection of the machine and the method to eliminate and separate the impurities is important in this study to get a satisfactory result. The attrition scrubbing method is used to eliminate the impurities from the sample. This method uses physical energy when each sample particle rubs against each other and continues to break down the impurities that coated the silica particles. Chemical reactions can be used in the attrition scrubbing method by adding other solutions such as detergent. This method gives a high grade of silica sand. In conclusion, XRD, XRF and OM machines are among the most important machines to use in the characterization of silica sand samples. This machine helps in giving data about the sample and further facilitates the experiment to be carried out to a deeper level. Understanding the characteristics of the sample is important to classify the sample before the next experiment is conducted.