Abstract
The elemental composition and phase analysis of fly ash collected from a thermal power plant in West Bengal, India was evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry, neutron activation analysis (NAA). Further, the particle size and surface morphology of the particles were also examined. Zeolite-A was prepared by fusion followed by hydrothermal synthesis method and its formation was confirmed by XRD. Based on the composition analysis, the Si/Al ratio was found to be 1.51, which is a good proportion to synthesise low silica zeolites.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thankfully acknowledge the Director, IGCAR, MC & MFCG, Associate Director, FMCG for their support and encouragement. The authors express their thanks to Mrs Annie David for SEM–EDX analysis and Mr G Jogeswara Rao for particle size distribution analysis. We sincerely thank the health physicists and reactor physicists of IGCAR for their help towards the irradiation and radiation dose measurements of samples.
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Mahima Kumar, M., Senthilvadivu, R., Brahmaji Rao, J.S. et al. Characterization of fly ash by ED-XRF and INAA for the synthesis of low silica zeolites. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 325, 941–947 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07243-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07243-0