Synthesis of ultra-low density nanosilica with extended Si-O-Si molecular network for Cr(VI) ions capture integrating monoazoic dye-surface interactions by molecular docking study

Nanosilica gels were synthesized by sol-gel route from Rice husk and Beach Sand, and characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, XRF, TEM, SAED and pHpzc techniques for batch adsorption of Cr(VI) ions, integrating molecular docking study of AY dye onto the adsorbents. The XRD spectra, and SAED images confirmed that the gels were polycrystalline, while TEM images revealed varying nanometric particle with diameters of 14.70 and 13.3 nm for Rice Husk Aerogel (RHA) nad Beach Sand Aerogel (BSA) adsorbents respe