Materials Science Forum, Vol.492-493, 287-292, 2005
Effects of seeding on the formation of large NaX zeolite crystals
The problem with zeolite crystals synthesized by conventional methods is that they are extremely small: their size typically varies 2 and 8 mu m, To better define the structure of a zeolite, scientists need to grow crystal that are 100 to 1000 times larger. In this work, large crystals zeolite NaX with a uniform size of 50 mu m were grown by a continuous crystallization method from seed crystals (5-10 mu m) formed in a mother solution with the 3.5Na(2)O : Al2O3 : 2.1SiO(2) : 1000H(2)O composition. In order to grow zeolite NaX crystals to an appropriate size by the continuous method, the mother solution was fed into an autoclave a solution with various seed contents (3 - 20wt%); the autoclave has at 90 degrees C and the solution was added after 7, 12, 16, 19 and 24 days or at 100 degrees C after 7 and 9 days.