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hydrothermal process works well for producing zeolite, specifically zeolite-Y from rice

husk silica (Pangesti et. al. 2021). On the other hand, the present study used the sol-gel

method in evaluating envirogel from lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) as desiccant

material. Chirsty and Sivarukshy, (2021), contrasted it to the commercial desiccant

material which is also similar to the present study.

The study of Setyawan et, al (2021) is similar to the current study conducted since

they also synthesize silica but differ in the raw materials used where this study used rice

husk while the present study used lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus). This study used

XRF to identify the chemical compositions and purity of silica powders produced from the

rice husk, XRD to determine the pattern of silica powders produce from various

concentrarion of KOH, and SEM or Scanning Electron Microscopy to depict morphology

of the nano-silica while the present study did not used these test. Also, they used varying

KOH solution for silica extraction 7, 10, 13 which is also used in the present study and

also the extraction time 90, 120 150 mins were also the same. Meanwhile, the gel drying

time used is not the same with the present since the present study considered the gel

drying time of 120 mins.

The study of Firdaus et al. (2017) is also similar to the current study being

conducted since it also used lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) in producing pure silica

whereas the current study also used lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) as the raw

materials in producing silica. The results of this study shows that it is really possible to

extract silica from lemongrass and synthesize it to improve the amount of silica that can

be produce. The methods utilized in the study were different to the current study since

the study of Firdaus et al. (2017) used hydrochloric acid leaching and thermal burning

while the current study utilized alkali extraction method and sol-gel method.

The study of Sembiring et al. (2014) is similar to the current study because both

study uses alkali extraction method to extract silica for the sol process of sol-gel method.
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The sol-gel method is recognized as the most appealing since it allows for good mixing

to ensure that the beginning elements are consistent, as a result of which the distribution

of components at the to create monophasic gels at the atomic level. There is a difference

between the two is the raw materials utilized and the laboratory test conducted. Also, the

study of Sembering et. al consider only 110 ℃ as the temperature for oven drying the gel

and 12 hours as its gel drying time while the current study made some modifications by

setting minimum and maximum paramaters based on study of Sembering et. al.