Industrialization has caused high water pollution with the continuous release of harmful chemicals like dyes and pesticides. The aim of this research work to produce a polymer membrane embedded with rice husk silica to filter wastewater that would retain harmful chemicals. The polymer membrane is made out of poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly ethylene glycol by embedding with the rice husk ash derived silica which is prepared using the novel method of spray drying of sodium silicate in the presence of CO2 gas. We found that the amorphous nature of the rice husk silica highly adsorb cationic dyes. However, it does not adsorb anionic dyes. This novel filtration membrane acts as a quick, cheap and as well as selective membrane in filtration harmful dyes and its potential to filter out pesticides is currently undergoing.
