Hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite by locally available clay and their characterization
Keywords:
Clay, Metakaoline, clacination and hydrothermal treatment]Abstract
Zeolite A was produced by using locally available clay in the Gulbarga region of Karnataka, India, via a method of alkali fusion – hydrothermal synthesis procedure. The clay used as a source material was initially converted into metakaoline by calcinating it at 800˚ C for 2h. Calcined clay was treated with sodium hydroxide to carry out fusion reactions at 850˚C; later aging was done, finally the aged sample hydrothermally treated to get the end product. The product (zeolite) obtained was characterized by Powder Xray Diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transmission Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). This work showed that a locally available clay in the Gulbarga region can be easily converted into zeolitic type material by following user friendly method like Alkali fusion followed by Hydrothermal treatment and the synthesized zeolite can be used effectively as an adsorbent for purifying the contaminated water
