Synthesis of NaY Zeolite Molecular Sieves from Calcined Diatomite
NaY zeolite molecular sieves have been synthesized using diatomite as a main starting material via a hydrothermal method. In this approach, the mixture of diatomite and Na2CO3 in mass ratio of 1.0/1.46 was first calcined at temperature of 830 °C for about 1.5 h. The calcined materials were then dissolved in water to obtain a solution and the composition is 15.1 Na2O : 1 Al2O3 : 11.5 SiO2 : 832 H2O. The solution was used to synthesize NaY zeolite by the crystals seeds (27.76Na2O·1.00Al2O3·25.07SiO2·305.66H2O) via hydrothermal treatment. The hydrothermal temperature is 100 °C and the percentage of added crystal seeds is 10% (volume) relative to calcined materials. The obtained zeolite was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and nitrogen sorption analysis, which showed that a high yield of NaY type with a high crystalinity was obtained.