surface modification of silica aerogel nanostructure by citric acid for wastewater treatment

In this work, silica aerogel nanostructure was modified by citric acid led to the successful incorporation of the carboxylate group into the silica aerogel. the effect of modification on the removal of the methylene blue (mb) dye from an aqueous solution was investigated. the silica aerogel was synthesized via sol-gel polymerization and ambient drying. the carboxylate-modified silica aerogel was prepared by aerogel dispersion in citric acid solution. the nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis, ft-ir, and fesem were used for characterization. the results show that the modification of silica aerogel by –cooh groups was successfully carried out. the dye adsorption efficiency of modified silica aerogel improved by 11% comparing unmodified silica aerogel.