The effect of ultrasound to changing of clinoptilolite structural properties with leaching

Zeolites are hydrated aluminosilicate minerals of a porous structure. They have valuable physicochemical properties such as cation exchange, molecular sieving, catalysis and sorption. There are natural minerals over of 40 such as clinoptilolite, chabasite, analcime and synthetic minerals over of 300 such as Zeolite A, Zeolite X/Y, MFI (ZSM-5) and Zeolite Beta. Main application areas of zeolites are adsorption, ion exchange, catalysis and separation. The most important property of zeolites, that have different Si/Al ratio, is being molecular sieve.In this study, the leaching of clinoptilolite zeolite was carried out with NaOH by ultrasound application. Si/Al ratios were changed by removing silicium and aluminium from the structure. At conditions fixed by central composite design method; the effects of temperature (55, 65, 75 oC), NaOH concentration (1, 2, 3 M), ultrasound power (20, 40, 60 W), mean particle size (29, 49, 69 µm) and time (20, 30, 40 min) on leaching of clinoptilolite were investigated.The structural properties of clinoptilolite were determined by XRF and BET analysis. Thermal analysis of clinoptilolite before and after leaching was examined by TGA, DTG, DTA.By using the experimental results obtained, second order modal equations that indicate the relation between silicium and aluminium amonts leached from clinoptilolite and relevant parameters, were developed. The optimum points for temperature, NaOH concentration, ultrasound power, mean particle size and time were determined by optimization.