Development and characterization of catalyst materials from magnetic sand, Crotalaria pallida and kaolin

Shalbugau K.W,Iji M,Nkafamiya I I,Maitera O N,Dass P.M

doi:10.14419/ijac.v9i2.31812

Abstract

In this study, magnetic sand and Crotalaria pallida gotten from Adamawa and Bauchi states of Nigeria, respectively, were mixed after treatment, and impregnated with kaolin using a wet impregnation method and the resulting material was characterized using scanning electron microcopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The result of XRF analysis revealed the existence of a number of dopant-like constituents in the sample, which substitute parts of important atoms in the spinel structure, however, not forming individual phases. The SEM micrographs displayed pore structures with high surface area consistent with effective catalyst materials. XRD analysis confirmed crystalline phases of the hybrid material showing typical diffraction peaks of kaolinite minerals (Al2Si2O9), Muscovite (Al12FeSi12K4NaRbH16O48), quartz, Si3O6 Calcite (Ca6C6O18) and Halite (Na4Cl4) and the average crystallite size was determined to be 75.30 nm.Â Â

Highlights

Catalysis is a scientific process by which the rate of chemical reactions can be enhanced by small amounts of foreign substances
The plant was dried at room temperature, crushed and carbonized at 600 °C in an oven, to obtain its ash. 500 g each of Magnetic sand and Kaolin were collected from their deposits in Adamawa and Bauchi, respectively
The catalysts were prepared by established wet impregnation method [20]. 10 g of kaolin was mixed with 30 ml of distilled water under stirring

Summary

Introduction

Catalysis is a scientific process by which the rate of chemical reactions can be enhanced by small amounts of foreign substances. Heterogeneous catalysts display a number of advantages over their homogeneous counterparts; they are environmentally benign, easy to separate and require simple post treatments. Many chemical reactions such as transesterification reaction can be done using solid acid or base catalyst [14]. Solid acid catalysts made use of are mixed oxides, zeolites and clays The fact that they have layered structure, high specific surface area, high cation exchange capacity (CEC), chemical and mechanical stability, Bronsted and Lewis acidity, etc., makes the clays superb materials for adsorption [9]. Kaolin clay is an inexpensive and versatile precursor which is found in a large number of geographical locations and has been utilized favourably in the synthesis and development of mesoporous aluminosilicates [13] and many microporous zeolite frameworks [15 – 19]

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Discussion

Conclusion