Synthesis and characterization of silica gel from Lapindo volcanic mud with ethanol as a cosolvent for desiccant applications.

Lapindo mud (LM) is a volcanic mud from a natural disaster that occurred 16 years ago in Sidoarjo District, East Java, Indonesia. The high amount of silica in the local materials of LM has been extracted for silica gel synthesis hydrometallurgy methods, followed by sol-gel methods. The presence of ethanol in the synthesis process generated a unique textural property at different ratios between ethanol and sodium silicate (e/ss).