Synthesis and characterization of zeolite-alpha and modified zeolite alpha and its use for the decontamination of chemical warfare agent simulants

In present study, our main goal is to evaluate the performance of zeolite-Alpha and modified zeolite Alpha with various metal oxide nanocomposites and used as a novel, adsorbent for the decontamination of most known chemical warfare agent simulants 2-chloroethylethylsulphide (CEES) and dimethylmethylphosphonate (DMMP). The zeolite-Alpha synthesized by hydrothermal method of layered aluminosilicate was carried out under static conditions. Above synthesized zeolite-Alpha were modified with metal oxides such as Cr-O, Ag-O and Cu-O nanocomposites. The synthesized zeolite alpha and their composites were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDS and BET analyses techniques. The decontamination process of CWA simulants were monitored by using GC-FID analysis technique. The nanocrystalline zeolite alpha and its composites are the powerful adsorbents and show greater decontamination potential towards CWA's simulants CEES and DMMP. The Cr-O-Alpha and Ag-O-Alpha show best results (~ 90-95% decontamination) among all other metal oxide composites. (author)