Synthesis and characterization of nano zeolite-A with aid of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as particle size-controlling agent

Synthesis of Nano zeolite-A has received considerable attention in the past decade and attracted profound attention as very essential commercial materials due to its nanoganic behavior., LTA Zeolites A (Linde Type A) are synthesized via low-temperature hydrothermal crystallization or microwave digestion methods in the presence of the 'organic templates'. Generally, Tetramethylammonium-hydroxide (TMAOH) has been used as a template however, non-recyclablity, numerous efforts have been hampered the synthesis of environmental friendly template. In this work, nano zeolite-A was synthesized via both hydrothermal and microwave methods. An anionic surfactant, Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used for controlling the particle size and as a site directing agent (SDA). The effects of different crystallization conditions such as aging time, synthesis time and temperature on the changes in particle size, morphology were investigated. The synthesized nano zeolite A was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. The obtained SEM and XRD results showed that both methods have ability to produce pure LTA zeolites crystallites with a 300-500 nm range in size with a high degree of crystallinity. However, lower aging temperature may cause for formation of sodalite (SOD) phase. Compared to the hydrothermal method, microwave approach is effective because it requires less time and produced narrow particle size distribution. Therefore, surfactant based zeolite-A synthesis would be potentially important in the chemical industry due to its competitive advantages as a green approach and cost-effectiveness.