The
Faujasite zeolite (Type-Y) is highly desired for many applications;
nevertheless, these nanozeolites are challenging to synthesize via
fast and low-cost pathways. This work provides a novel, simple, fast,
and low-cost pathway to synthesize of Y nanocrystalline zeolite using
poly(vinyl alcohol) as a growth inhibitor. Poly(vinyl alcohol) fasts
the process transformation of amorphous particles into Y nanocrystalline
zeolite through coating, protecting, and stabilizing of amorphous
nanoparticles under high crystalline temperature. The structures and
morphologies of Y nanozeolites were investigated with field emission
scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX)
analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller
(BET), and transition electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that
when poly(vinyl alcohol) is present during heating step, it can impact
the size of the Y zeolite crystals. The pure Y nanozeolites with the
size <30 nm and excellent textural properties (V
total = 0.73 cm3/g and S
BET = 816 m2/g) were obtained after an aging period
of 24 h and a heating step at 100 °C during 5 h. This novel synthesis
could contribute to overcoming the challenges of obtaining various
nanozeolites under high-temperature synthesis for a short time instead
of low-temperature synthesis for a long time.
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