Effects of Hydrothermal Parameters on the Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Zeolite NaY

Abstract Synthesized zeolites are extremely important as industrial minerals and are most commonly prepared using organic templates. Because these organic templates present undesirable environmental hazards, a synthesis method which avoids their use is desirable. The objective of the current study was to develop such a synthesis method. Zeolite NaY was synthesized hydrothermally starting from a mixture of 1.0 Al 2 O 3 :10 SiO 2 :4.6 Na 2 O:180 H 2 O molar gel composition, without adding any organic additives. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of molar compositions including water content (H 2 O/SiO 2 ), crystallization conditions including temperature, and time on the crystal size and yield of NaY-type zeolite. The results showed that increasing the crystallization time from 5 to 12 h increased the crystal size, while increasing the crystallization temperature from 80 to 100°C also increased crystallinity. The crystal species of zeolite NaY were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy analysis. Zeolite NaY crystals in the size range 25–150 nm were synthesized successfully over a period of 8 h at 100°C.