Synthesis and characterization of zeolite prepared from Iraqi metakaolin and its application in the removal of Rodamin B dye from wastewater

In this thesis, the use of Iraqi metakaolin as primary raw material for zeolite synthesis was investigated. Three different methodologies were used to synthesize zeolite, only the first approach produced zeolite A (LTA) and the remaining two methods did not give good zeolite product. Comprehensive characterization using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis was carried out to evaluate the structural and morphological properties of the synthesized zeolite A. The findings clearly confirm the successful production of zeolite LTA. The synthesized zeolite was used to investigate its effectiveness in removing Rodamin B dye due to its hazardous effects on the environment and aquatic ecosystems. It was observed that the synthesized zeolite (LTA) could not remove Rodamin B dye at any concentration. Thereupon, zeolite (A) was treated with hydrochloric acid to remove the dye and an attempt was made to expand the surface area and pore size. With a 0.1 M hydrochloric acid concentration, the pore size increased to 8.3578 nanometers but its area did not increase significantly. It was observed that 2g of acid-treated zeolite removed approximately 13 ppm of dye in 3 minutes. In contrast, when 0.8 grams of metakaolin (raw material) was tested to remove Rodamin B, approximately 46 ppm of dye was removed. Finally, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were tested to determine which model the results were compatible with. From the R-squared values, it was found that the Langmuir model fitted better, with a qmax (mg/g) value of 0.179. As a result, it was concluded that the synthesized zeolite LTA (A) was not effective or economically suitable for removing Rodamin B dye and that it would be preferable to use metakaolin directly in the removal process due to its good performance.