Characterizations and ion-exchange properties of zeolite NaA synthesized in a continuous process

摘要

Synthesis of zeolite through hydrothermal process has been commonly used for decades. However, slow crystallization kinetics and a limited thermo-dynamical stability of the target crystal phase are characteristic to zeolite formation, representing some of the key obstructions for fast zeolite synthesis. In this paper, the possibility of accelerating Zeolite NaA synthesis in a continuous flow reactor (CFR) was designed and installed. The CFR reduces the thermal lag by improving the crystallization rates of Zeolite NaA and decreasing the zeolite synthesis time. The optimal conditions for the synthesis of Zeolite NaA in the CFR were determined as a gel composition of Na_2O:SiO_2:Al_2O_3:H_2O= 3.17 : 2 : 1 : 128, aging the gel mixture in 48 hours at ambient temperature. The synthesized powders were characterized by XRD, SEM. The results showed that the complete crystallization of typical cubic synthesized by the CFR was achieved at a synthesis temperature of 120°C during 5.5 mins with about 1 wt.% zeolite NaA seed, much faster than conventional hydrothermal synthesis (about 24 hours). The final zeolite powder with the addition of other additives (bentonite, Polyethylene glycol - PEG) and moisture was manufactured into cylindrical pellet by the methods of cold press and sintered pellets. The size of the pellet was 5mm in length and 2mm in diameter. The synthesized pellet was proved to show an equivalent cation exchange capacity (CEC) to commercial Zeolite NaA.