Highly Ordered Mesoporous Al-MCM-41 Synthesis through Valorization of Natural Sediment

In this work, natural sediment was used as an alternative and green inorganic source to synthesize valuable structured Al-MCM-41 material by a hydrothermal process. This intertidal sediment contains a mixture of clay minerals (montmorillonite and ilite) and minerals (quartz and feldspar) providing large SiO2 (similar to 64%) and Al2O3 (similar to 15%) content which were efficiently extracted by alkaline fusion. The synthesized mesoporous material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR), N-2 physisorption, and Al-27 solid-state magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (Al-27 MAS NMR). The results achieved reveal that pure and highly ordered hexagonal mesoporous aluminosilicate MCM-41 containing structural aluminum has been successfully synthesized. Moreover, it was evidenced that the obtained solid presents uniform pore size distribution (3.6 angstrom) as well as high pore volume (0.59 cm(3)g(-1)) and elevated specific surface area (807 m(2)g(-1)).