We report high crystallinities and novel changes in the morphologies of Faujasite zeolites. Faujasites (FAU) were synthesized by hydrothermal reactions of sodium aluminate and silica solutions without any seed or template. The structure and morphology of FAU was greatly altered by the addition of different cations and polar solvents. Changes in the crystal structures and morphologies were verified with the change of alkali group members from Na, K, to Ca and use of polar solvents as additives from ethanol, propanol to ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, and glycerol. Crystal structure and morphologies were investigated by XRD, SEM, FTIR, AFM, and BET techniques. Microwave heating was used only in the nucleation phase during the synthesis of FAU to enhance the kinetics of nucleation reaction and to study the effects of dielectric constant and presence of single, double, and triple OH functional groups of polar organic additives. The use of microwave heating for nucleation reaction greatly improved the kinetics of reaction and thus greatly impacted on the crystallization of the end product especially when used additives having double and triple OH functional groups. Hydrothermal reaction without using any additives ended up in the FAU phase. However, an increase of OH ions and a change of cations played an important role in the formation of different phases and morphologies of resulting zeolites.

Effect of cations and polar additives on the crystallinity and morphology of FAU zeolite

247th National Meeting (2014)

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