Studies on natrolite, a natural zeolite and its cation-exchanged and adsorbed derivatives with NiII, CuII, liquor NH3 and H2S

Electrochemical Sensors Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Allahabad, Allahabad-211 002, Uttar Pradesh, India E-mail : mcc46@rediffmail.com Manuscript received 19 June 2008, revised 23 March 2009, accepted 17 April 2009 These studies are based on the cation exchange and adsorption behaviour of a natrolite (Na2O AI2O3.3SiO2. 2H2O), a natural zeolite, collected from Sinner, Nasik (Maharashtra) as a geological specimen in the powder form. Nill-natrolite and Cull-natrolite were prepared with saturated aqueous NiII-nitrate and CuII-sulphate solution respectively by continuous shaking the metal salt solution with natrolite at 60 °C for maximum interaction. A portion of this exchanged derivative was then heated over a maker burner for several days in platinum crucible. Both, the original and heated NiII-natrolite and CuII-natrolite samples were also interacted with gaseous H2S and liquor NH3 to study their sorption capacity and heating affects. All the derivatives prepared were analyzed by XRD and FTIR techniques