This paper reports the study of milling duration on silicon dioxide characterization. The silicon dioxide has undergone mechanical milling treatment from 0 to 100 hours. The product after milling process was characterized by using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Williamson-Hall plot technique was used in this study to analyse the silicon dioxide crystallite size and lattice strain. The longer milling duration resulted in the reduction of crystallite size and increase in lattice strain. © The authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017.