Silica with a high surface area is a good compound to
be used as adsorbent or support for catalysts. Also, the
reactivity of silica is directly related to its surface area.
The BET-specific surface area and pore volume of RHA
(at optimized conditions) and nanosilica are given in Table 5. A major contribution to the high surface area is
that the organic matter has been broken up during the
thermal decomposition of RH0, thus leaving a highly porous
structure. The increasing pore volume in nanosilica
confirms this phenomenon.