Preparation and characterization of a novel zeolite using hydrothermal synthesis in a stirred reactor

This paper describes the preparation of novel zeolite particles by the hydrothermal method in a stirred reactor. The variations between certain properties of the resulting zeolites, such as morphology by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pore properties (i.e., surface areas, pore volume, and porosity) by the surface area & porosity analyzer, crystallinity by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Si/Al ratio by the inductively coupled plasma-atomic absorption spectrometer (ICP-AES), and the process parameters, such as aging time, agitation speed, temperature and pressure, were studied at a specific gel composition. The optimal value of the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area was found to be over 400 m²/g in the resulting microporous zeolite, indicating that the size was centered on about 0.5 nm. The XRD image was indicative of the probable formation of zeolite-P2 in the hydrothermal synthesis.