SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZEOLITE Y FROM KANKARA CLAY USING ALKALINE FUSION METHOD.

Abstract

Zeolite Y was synthesized from Kankara clay, following alkaline fusion method which compared favourably with other conventional method of synthesis to obtain a high yield of zeolite Y. The raw material was hydrothermally activated with NaOH to synthesized zeolite Y. The starting materials for zeolite Y synthesis were prepared in two stages; The first stage was colloidal seed with a composition (5% of Al): 10.67 Na2O: Al2O3:10SiO2:180H2O and the second phase was the preparation of feedstock gel which was done few hours before the ageing time of the colloidal gel elapsed. The method used eliminated a lot of challenges, cost and energy of production using conditions crystallization temperature of 100oC and time of 5 h. This produced zeolite Y with a specific surface area of 686 m2/g, the SEM images demonstrated that the produced zeolites Y possessed agglomerated tetrahedral euhedral morphology. The transformation of the starting material into zeolite Y was evaluated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy to elucidate the crystallization process of zeolites