Zeolite synthesized from local kaolin by hydrothermal fusion method

Zeolite is an important material for both industrial as well as environmental applications. It is mainly used as a catalyst for petroleum refining, detergents, drying reagent, absorber for harmful gases and also it is used in water treatment and purification systems. As the value of zeolite is much more than that of kaolin, a study was conducted to develop a process of producing zeolite from low quality local kaolin. The process is based on a hydrothermal method with a fusion stage. In this paper, we will discuss the results obtained whereby the fusion process uses sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at fusion temperatures of 550 degree C. Properties of of the product were firstly determined by identifying their crystalline phase using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique. Another important properties of the zeolite products are their large surface area and this was determined by the BET surface area analyzer technique. Besides this, other characteristics technique used are Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for identifying morphological structure, Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectroscopy to determine the stretching mode of zeolite functional groups, Thermal Gravimetric Analyser (TGA/DTC) for hydrothermal stability and also particle size analyzer for size distribution analysis. (Author)