| ABSTRACT |
Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicate materials widely used in adsorption, catalysis, ion exchange, and wastewater treatment due to their high surface area, porosity, and ion-exchange capacity. The increasing demand for low-cost and sustainable adsorbent materials has encouraged the utilization of natural minerals such as kaolin for zeolite synthesis. Kaolin is abundant in Malaysia and contains high silica (SiO₂) and alumina (Al₂O₃) contents, making it a suitable precursor for zeolite production. This study focuses on the hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite LTA (Z-LTA) from Malaysian kaolin and investigates the influence of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) molarity and crystallization time on the formation, crystallinity, and morphology of synthesized zeolite.
Raw kaolin was first beneficiated, dried, and sieved before undergoing calcination at temperatures ranging from 500¿800 °C for 4 hours to produce metakaolin. Hydrothermal synthesis was then carried out by mixing 3 g of metakaolin with different NaOH molarities (0.5¿3 M), followed by aging at 40 °C for 24 hours and crystallization at 100 °C for varying durations (9¿30 hours). The synthesized zeolite samples were washed and dried before characterization. Several analytical techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Particle Size Analysis (PSA), and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) were used to investigate the phase transformation, crystallinity, morphology, chemical composition, and thermal stability of the synthesized zeolite materials
|
