Synthesis and characterization of zeolites using phenyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (PTMAOH) as template by conventional hydrothermal and microwave assisted methods

Analytical Division, Faculty of Chemistry, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran

E-mail : samadi@umz.ac.ir

Manuscript received online 14 April 2014, revised 02 May, accepted 10 May 2014

A few sample of zeolites were synthesized using two different techniques, first by conventional heating method (hydrothermal) and another by exposing the hydrogel to microwave radiation assisted by hydrothermal heating (Microwave treatment). Microwave heating decreased the nucleation and crystallization time. These zeolites powder were prepared at temperature of 450 K and at presence of organic template and without it. Templates were organic species added to synthesis media to aid/guide in the polymerization of the anionic building blocks that form the framework. The crystalline zeolites samples obtained were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. It was established that phase purity, morphology, and the size of crystals of crystalline products were affected by molar ratios of the substrate, such as (H₂O/Na₂O) and present of organic template. Amorphous silica powder (Zeosil) was the preferred as silica source. The size of crystals in the microwave treatment samples are 5–10 µm without template and 10–15 µm with template and for the conventional heating heated samples are 20–25 µm without template and 50–60 m with template.