High nickel content in nickel manganese cobalt (NMC811, LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2) resulted in high capacity but low structural stability. Surface modification of NMC811 via silica (SiO2) coating is known to counter this problem, leading to better electrochemical performance. In this work, silica was synthesized from rice husk through sol-gel method with alkaline extraction followed by acidification process. The resulting silica was coated onto commercially available NMC811 to modify its surface via solid-state reaction method. The characterization results showed that the silica coated NMC811 demonstrated a higher conductivity and lithium diffusion coefficient of 2.85 x 10-5 S/cm and 2.52 x 10-14 cm2/s, respectively, compared to that of bare NMC811 (8.17x10-6 S/cm and 1.75 x 10-15 cm2/s, respectively). This result confirms that the silica derived from rice husk can be used as a potential low-cost material to modify the surface and thus to increase the electrochemical performance of commercial NMC811. © 2025 Trans Tech Publications Ltd, All Rights Reserved.