Effects of Si/Al Ratios on the Bulk-Type Zeolite Formation Using Synthetic Metakaolin-Based Geopolymer with Designated Composition

Abstract

In this paper, synthetic metakaolin with fixed composition (Al2O3·2SiO2) was produced by a simple chemosynthetic route. The chemosynthetic metakaolin can eliminate the influence of impurities in metakaolin from natural kaolin minerals. The synthetic metakaolin together with NaOH and SiO2-sol were used to prepare Na-based geopolymer precursors with various molar ratios of Si/Al. The molar ratios of Si/Al from 1 to 2 were tailored by adding different contents of SiO2-sol. Zeolite/geopolymer composites or monolith-type zeolite were successfully fabricated from synthetic metakaolin-based geopolymer through a hydrothermal process. The effects of Si/Al ratios on the phase composition and microstructure of the produced zeolite/geopolymer composites or zeolites were studied. The results proved that the composition of synthetic metakaolin and geopolymer precursors can be facilely tuned, and the monolithic geopolymer precursors can be mostly, or even totally, transformed into zeolite after hydrothermal treatment.