| Summary: | Rice husk is widely recognized as significant biomass containing cellulose, lignin and silica. Usually, rice husk is combusted
for energy purposes but it contributes to severe environmental pollution. Therefore, the integrated components of rice husk
(i.e. silica) can be extracted and converted into value-added products. However, the metallic impurities must be removed
before further extraction. Generally, rice husk is leached with conventional acids such as HCl and nitric acid, however, the
present study has used aqua regia and compared the results with conventional acids. The leached rice husk samples were
characterized using TGA, SEM and EDX. The results of the present work indicate that the aqua regia carries a significant
leaching potential to remove metallic impurities from rice husk with 1 M and 2 M solutions removing more than 98% and
99% of impurities respectively. However, its brief chemical stability compels it to be prepared and used immediately.
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