Synthesis
of zeolites or zeolite/clay composites from natural aluminosilicate
minerals has received extensive attention because of its great usefulness
in greening the zeolite manufacturing process, in which effective
activation of natural aluminosilicate minerals is crucially important.
Herein, we present an energy saving and green approach, the quasi-solid-phase
activation method, to efficiently destruct the natural minerals under
the conditions of a temperature as low as 100 °C and an activation
time as short as 30 min. Our strategy consists of the following three
steps: (1) preparation of a mixture of a natural kaolin mineral, NaOH,
and water by kneading, (2) extruding of the mixture into sticks, and
(3) low-temperature calcination of the stick, featured by the combined
use of mechanochemical actions. The results showed that 84.7% Si species
and 69.0% Al species in the kaolin mineral underwent a large degree
of depolymerization in the kneading and extruding steps, and following
calcination at 100 °C resulted in the complete depolymerization
of the kaolin mineral to monomer orthosilicate anions (Q0) and tetracoordinated aluminum (AlIV) species, which
are highly active silica and alumina sources for synthesizing aluminosilicate
zeolites. Using the activated kaolin mineral as a starting material,
pure-phase NaY and NaA zeolites have been successfully synthesized.