Abstract:
Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was prepared by chemical methods using two
methods, direct method and indirect method by using copper oxide supporting on
alumina catalyst, from silicon dioxide and diethyl ether using acid catalyst of
hydrochloric acid (11.8M). The sol gel process was applied for the preparation of
nano silica gel. This method involves hydrolysis and condensation reaction of TEOS,
the mechanism of this method was explained and showed formation of a network Si-
O-Si chemical linkage form the alkoxysilane,the yield of tetraethylorthosilicate was
characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, the results obtained indicating that, the bond of
Si-O-Si successfully formed. And the comparison between two method was studied
and results showed that, the rate of reaction of TEOS which was prepared by direct
method was equal to 0.008g/sec and prepared by using catalyst was equal to
0.275g/sec, indicating that, the tetraethyl orthosilicates that which prepared by
indirect method by using catalyst was better than the direct method.
