Establishing two-stage interaction between fly ash and NaOH by X-ray and infrared analyses

Abstract

The interaction of the fly ash and NaOH, in an open reflux hydrothermal system at 100°C, has been explored by several researchers and formation of fly ash zeolites has been confirmed based on the X-ray diffraction analysis of the residues. However, this method does not reveal much about the characteristic transitions (viz. elemental, electro-negativity and cation exchange capacity) of the residues. In this situation, resorting to Fourier transform-infrared radiation (FT-IR) spectroscopy on the residues obtained from two-stage hydrothermal treatment process, described in this manuscript, appears to be a novel idea to establish transitions in chemical bonds (viz., -Si-OH-Al-, OH-Na, OH-Al-), crystallinity and cation exchange capacity of these residues. Based on extensive studies, it has been demonstrated that FT-IR spectroscopy is extremely useful for 1) detection of chemical bonds in the residues, 2) evaluation of zeolites in the residues and 3) also establishing the superiority of the two-stage interaction of the fly ash with NaOH for synthesizing better fly ash zeolites (viz., Na-P1 and Hydroxysodalte) as compared to those obtained from the conventional single-stage treatment of the fly ash.

Keywords

hydrothermal treatment / alkali activation / fly ash zeolites / X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform-infrared radiation (FT-IR) spectroscopy

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