Highly Ordered Mesoporous Al-MCM-41 Synthesis through Valorization of Natural Sediment

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 SiO2 (∼64%) and Al2O3 (∼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), N2 physisorption, and 27Al solid-state magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (27Al 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 cm3g–1) and elevated specific surface area (807 m2g–1)