Abstract

In this research, both silica and silicon were prepared in nanoscale using glass waste, given the wide range of industrial applications covered by these materials especially in the field of electronics and clean energy generation systems. Preparation process included several sequential stages that began with collecting samples of crushed glass and treating them physically (grinding, granular sorting), mixing granulated crushed glass with NaOH in a ratio  (1:1) (1:2) (1:3), then treatment in a laboratory furnace at different temperatures (800-900-1000)°C. The next step was treating the sample with diluted HCl 1:1 with heating to 60°C to isolate the silica, which was treated at 900°C for 30 min to form SiO2 nanoparticles with a yield of 68%, and a purity of up to 99.5%. The resulting silica (SiO2) was characterized by XRD and AFM techniques. Results of the two – and three-dimensional images captured by AFM showed the formation of silica nanotubes, and the surface roughness was Ra = 78 nm. Silicon nanoparticles were prepared from silica by mixing it with magnesium powder in a ratio of (SiO2:Mg) (1:2), which was treated at different temperatures (700-750-800-900)°C for two hours, followed by treatment with diluted HCl. It was finally treated with 5% HF to get rid of the associated secondary compounds and obtain silicon with a yield of 90% upon treatment at 800 °C, consistent with previous studies, as the treatment to a higher temperature causes an increase in the byproduct. The analysis by XRD and AFM techniques proved that silicon nano-structure was formed, where surface roughness was Ra = 286 nm. Compared to previous studies, our research presented a promising; low-cost, high-yield method using an industrial waste of glass. The purity of the obtained compounds is comparable to those prepared by other techniques, which are more expensive and difficult.