Base and acid sites in alkaline earth cation-exchanged X zeolites

The Behaviour of Rare Earth Elements from South African Coal Fly Ash during Enrichment Processes: Wet, Magnetic Separation and Zeolitisation

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential raw materials in a variety of industries including clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. This places an ever-increasing demand on global rare earth element production. Coal fly ash (CFA) possesses appreciable levels of REEs. CFA, a waste by-product of coal combustion, is therefore a readily available source of REEs that does not require mining. CFA valorisation to zeolites has been achieved via various synthesis pathways. This study aimed to evaluate one such pathway by monitoring how REEs partition during CFA processing by the wet, magnetic separation process and zeolitisation. South African CFA was subjected to wet, magnetic separation and subsequent zeolitisation of the nonmagnetic fraction (NMF); solid products were characterised by XRD, SEM, XRF and LA-ICP-MS. The wet, magnetic separation process resulted in the partitioning of a specific set of transition metals (such as Fe, Mn, Cr, V, Ni, Zn, Cu, Co and Mo) into the magnetic fraction (MF) of CFA, while REEs partitioned into the NMF with a total REE content of 530.2 ppm; thus, the matrix elements of CFA were extracted with ease. Zeolitisation resulted in a solid zeolite product (hydroxysodalite) with a total REE content of 537.6 ppm. The process of zeolitisation also resulted in the selective enrichment of Ce (259.1 ppm) into the solid zeolite product (hydroxysodalite), while other REEs were largely partitioned into the liquid phase. CFA valorisation by wet, magnetic separation and zeolitisation therefore allowed for the partitioning of REEs into various extraction products while recovering the matrix elements of CFA such as Fe, Si and Al. The findings of this study highlight the geopolitical importance of REEs in terms of the development of alternative processes for REE recovery from waste and alternative sources, which may potentially give countries that employ and develop the technology a key advantage in the production of REEs for the global market.

K+ and Ca2+ modified Na-X zeolites as possible bile acids sequestrant

Modified zeolite X, previously exchanged with K+ and Ca2+ cations were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, chemical analysis and BET techniques. Different masses of these solids were mixed with an ox bile solution at different reaction times. The supernatants obtained by centrifugations were submitted to bile acid and phospholipids quantitative determinations. The amount of bile acids adsorbed was 65, 28 and 77% and for phospholipids was 45, 67 and 98% for KX, NaX and CaX respectively. As expected, as the amount of mass used increases more bile acids and phospholipids are adsorbed due to a larger surface of the solid being available for adsorption. On the other hand, 120 min of reaction time were sufficient for the adsorption of both components. The solids, after incubations with bile solutions were treated with abundant distilled water and dried at room temperature. The FT-IR analysis of these solids did not detect any bile and on the zeolite surface with suggested that the bile acid adsorption on the exchanged zeolites is moderated by weak and non covalent interactions.

Determination of the acid/base properties of MgY and NH4Y molecular sieves by inverse gas chromatography

The surface characterization of MgY and NH(4)Y zeolites was performed using inverse gas chromatography (IGC). The adsorption thermodynamic parameters (the standard enthalpy (DeltaH degrees ), standard entropy change (DeltaS degrees ), and free energy change of adsorption (DeltaG degrees ), the dispersive component of the surface free energies (gamma(S)(d)), and the acid-base character of the surface of MgY and NH(4)Y zeolites were estimated using the retention time of different non-polar and polar probes at infinite dilution region. The specific free energy of adsorption (DeltaG(sp)), the specific enthalpy of adsorption (DeltaH(sp)), and the specific entropy of adsorption (DeltaS(sp)) of polar probes on MgY and NH(4)Y zeolites were determined. The values of the DeltaH(sp) were correlated with both the donor and acceptor numbers of the probes to quantify the acidic K(A) and the basic K(D) parameters of the zeolite surfaces. The values obtained for the K(A) and K(D) parameters indicated a basic character for the surface of MgY and NH(4)Y zeolites.