Thermally induced phase transformations in cation-exchanged zeolites 4A, 13X and synthetic mordenite and their amorphous derivatives obtained by mechanochemical treatment

Abstract

Thermal transformations of Li +, K +, Cs + and NH + 4-exchanged zeolite A, NH + 4-exchanged zeolite X, NH + 4-exchanged synthetic mordenite and the X-ray amorphous materials obtained by ball milling of crystalline phases (the exchanged zeolites A, X and synthetic mordenite) were investigated by different methods such as differential-scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential thermal gravimetry (DTG), X-ray powder diffractometry, FTIR spectroscopy and scanning-electron microscopy (SEM). Thermal stability of the investigated solids depends on the type of zeolite, type of exchanged cation and SiO 2/Al 2O 3 molar ratio in the starting crystalline and amorphous samples. Most crystalline zeolites transform to other crystalline phase(s) without formation of amorphous intermediates, but in some cases of Li +, K +-exchanged zeolite A, a transformation to amorphous intermediate proceeds into secondary crystalline phase(s). Both crystalline and amorphized NH + 4-exchanged zeolites A and X transform to a mixture of mullite and amorphous silica, whereas the NH + 4-exchanged synthetic mordenite transforms to amorphous phase only. A special attention is paid to the transformation of crystalline and amorphized samples.