Abstract
In this study, the synthesis of a new composite adsorbent using rice biosourced silica, silver nanoparticles and triethoxysilane as the raw materials for removal aqueous mercury ions from water is presented. The new composite material was synthesised by modification of the surface of rice husk based silica with silane groups and farther decoration with silver nanoparticles. Characterization was carried out through, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra analysis, N2 adsorption-desorption (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Synthetic and real mercury containing water sampled from Balkyldak lake-reservoir, Kazakhstan were tested. The results demonstrated that the affinity of the composite for mercury is high and the removal mechanism is adsorption accompanied by an amalgamation reaction between silver and mercury.