Highly ordered mesoporous Al-MCM-41 synthesis through valorization of natural sediment

Abstract

In this work, natural sediment was used as an alternative and green inorganic source to synthesize valuable structured Al-MCM-41 material by a hydrothermal process. This intertidal sediment contains a mixture of clay minerals (montmorillonite and ilite) and minerals (quartz and feldspar) providing large SiO 2 (64%) and Al 2 O 3 (15%) content which were efficiently extracted by alkaline fusion. The synthesized mesoporous material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR), N 2 physisorption, and 27 Al solid-state magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 27 Al MAS NMR). The results achieved reveal that pure and highly ordered hexagonal mesoporous aluminosilicate MCM-41 containing structural aluminum has been successfully synthesized. Moreover, it was evidenced that the obtained solid presents uniform pore size distribution (3.6 Å) as well as high pore volume (0.59 cm 3 g -1) and elevated specific surface area (807 m 2 g -1).