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Sustainable strategies to synthesize small-pore NaP zeolites using natural minerals

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Abstract

The interesting chemical and physical properties of microporous zeolites have led to their use in numerous industrial applications, such as adsorbents, ion exchangers, and catalysts, increasing the worldwide consumption of these materials annually. However, the development of synthetic zeolites usually involves the use of expensive chemical reagents; therefore, the use of alternative sources of Si and/or Al, such as minerals and waste streams, has gained attention over the past few years owing to the benefits in production costs and decreasing environmental burden. In this study, we report the synthesis of single-phase small-pore NaP zeolites via alkaline hydrothermal treatment (HT) using natural clinoptilolite (CLIP) as the Si and Al source. The synthesized zeolites were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results showed that the variations in molar concentration (1 and 2 M), crystallization time (24 and 39 h), and crystallization temperature (90, 105, and 110 °C) play a major role in obtaining two types of NaP isomorphs (NaP1 and NaP2), which feature a flexible framework, where the synthesis parameters of 1 M, 24 h, and 90 °C led to the formation of a single-phase NaP1 zeolite with high purity. These results demonstrate the feasibility of developing sustainable synthesis processes from low-cost and abundant raw materials to produce high-value-added synthetic zeolites as alternatives to traditional chemical reagent-based synthesis methods.

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Acknowledgment

E.C.-G gratefully acknowledges the financial support from CONACYT through the CB-A1-S-44458 and 2096029-FORDECYT-PRONACES grants. J.A.M.-T acknowledges the support from a CONACYT PhD scholarship (743221). We also acknowledge the technical support provided by the M.C. Christian Albor Cortes from Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, A.C. for providing SEM-EDS analyses of the samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Unidad Querétaro, Apdo. Postal 1-798, 76001, Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico

    José Adán Moreno-Torres & Rafael Ramírez-Bon

  2. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en Electroquímica, Parque Tecnológico Querétaro, s/n. Pedro Escobedo 76703, Querétaro, Mexico

    Fabricio Espejel-Ayala

  3. Sustainable Materials Unit, VITO Flemish Institute for Technological Research, 2400, Mol, Belgium

    Eduardo Coutino-Gonzalez

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  1. José Adán Moreno-Torres
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  2. Fabricio Espejel-Ayala
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  3. Rafael Ramírez-Bon
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Contributions

JAM-T contributed to methodology, formal analysis, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. FE-A contributed to methodology, validation, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. RR-B contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, validation, writing—review & editing. EC-G contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, validation, writing—review & editing, funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rafael Ramírez-Bon or Eduardo Coutino-Gonzalez.

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Moreno-Torres, J.A., Espejel-Ayala, F., Ramírez-Bon, R. et al. Sustainable strategies to synthesize small-pore NaP zeolites using natural minerals. J Mater Sci 59, 423–434 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09218-4

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