A Comparative Study of the Synthesis of MFI Zeolite by Using High- and Low-Temperature Heating

Abstract

Zeolites are among the main catalysts in the petroleoum and fine-chemical industry. The well-defined channel framework with the acid sites have empowered this kind of material to catalyze many chemical reactions, such as alkylation, isomerization, and hydrocarbon cracking. Controlling the energy consumption towards efficient process in the synthesis of zeolite has been a great interest. In this light, we succesfully show that synthesis of MFI zeolite can be tailored by using high or low temperature heating. Synthesis via high-temperature heating (HTH) at 150 °C, resulted in conventional coffin-type morphology whereas low-temperature heating (LTH) at 90 °C, resulted in a spherical-type morphology. This phenomenon indicates that energy consumption for synthesizing MFI zeolite can be decreased. Moreover, the tetrapropylammonion ion (TPA+) amount as structure-directing agents (SDA) can be lowered, hence reducing the synthesis cost. The obtained samples were charaterized by advanced techniques to compare interesting properties between samples synthesized by HTH and LTH. This concerns on the resulting morphology, textural properties, and Si/Al framework ratio.