Environmentally Friendly Mesoporous Material Derived From Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display and Sandblasting and Its Application of Environmental Humidity Control

The preparation of an aluminum-mesoporous humidity controlling material (Al-MHCM) by hydrothermally synthesizing a mixture of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) waste glass and sandblasting (SB) waste was studied; additionally, the remaining residue was completely reused. The synthesized Al-MHCM was analyzed, and its moisture controlling performance along with its pore and surface structure characteristics were determined. In addition, the influence of the hydrothermal synthesis temperature and silicon-to-aluminum molar ratio on the product was also studied. The characteristic analysis results of the product confirm that the product has a typical mesoporous structure, with a specific surface area of up to 1013 m2/g, and the pore size distribution calculated by the BJH method is 3-4 nm with a pore volume of 0.97 cm3/g. The 27Al NMR analysis verifies that all the aluminum atoms of the product are in the form of tetrahedral aluminum (Td-Al) in the mesoporous Al-MHCM framework, which confirms the successful synthesis of Al-containing mesoporous MCM-41 materials. In addition, as the aluminum content increased, the water adsorption/desorption capacity of Al-MHCM also increased. Results show that when the hydrothermal synthesis temperature is 105°C, the product synthesized from a mixture with a silicon-to-aluminum molar ratio of 41.8 exhibits excellent performance (91.45 m3/ m3) in terms of the equilibrium moisture content and moisture adsorption capacity. Al-MHCM, which can be synthesized at a low cost, can be used as a humidity controlling material for adjusting the relative humidity of indoor environmental spaces. Thus, this study provides a novel method for producing Al-MHCM to use as a future humidity-controlling building material.