A facile method to synthesize highly uniform zeolite A at near room temperature for copper (II) removal

A simple hydrothermal method was used to synthesize nanozeolite A with high uniformity and good dispersibility by using aluminum isopropyl alcohol as the aluminum source and tetraethyl orthosilicate as the silicon source. Products synthesized at different temperatures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N2 adsorption–desorption. This study discusses in detail the effect of temperature on the particle size of synthesized nanozeolite A. Compared with zeolite A synthesized at 65 °C, 55 °C and 45 °C, zeolite A synthesized at 35 °C has a uniform shape and the smallest particle size (80 nm). With decreasing temperature, the particle size of the synthetic zeolite decreases and becomes uniform. At the same time, low-temperature zeolite crystal syntheses are slow, which provides feasibility for studying the nucleation and growth mechanism of zeolites. The copper (II) adsorption experiment shows that the fastest removal efficiency for copper (II) is nanozeolite A synthesized at 35 °C, with a maximum removal rate of 93.26% (155.4 mg/g).