Microscopic Investigation of Nanocrystalline Zeolite L

An investigation of aluminosilicate zeolite L (structure code LTL) nanocrystals converted from rice husk ash in template-free system is reported. Crystallization evolution of the zeolite L was monitored and followed by X-ray diffraction, high-reso-lution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy, and infrared spec-troscopy techniques. It was found that fully crystalline zeolite L (Si/Al = 3.0) with square tablet morphology was nucleated at 4 h, and the crystals with a mean particle size of 210 nm was completely transformed from amorphous silica after 24 h of hydrothermal treatment. I