Preparation of ZSM-12 Zeolite from RHS and Its Application for Synthesis of n-type ZnO Semiconductor Nanoparticles: A Green Chemistry Approach

• Published in: Journal of inorganic and organometallic polymers and materials Vol. 28; no. 6; pp. 2213 - 2220
• Main Authors: Mehmandoust, Ghazale, Pourahmad, Afshin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.11.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural wastes; Agrochemicals; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystallization; Inorganic Chemistry; N-type semiconductors; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Organic Chemistry; Polymer Sciences; Silicon dioxide; Substrates; Zeolites; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides; BET; MTW; Semiconductor; Nanocomposite; Solid-state reaction; Rice husk silica
• ISSN: 1574-1443; 1574-1451
• DOI: 10.1007/s10904-018-0954-0

White rice husk silica (RHS), an agriculture waste, was used as a silica source for ZSM-12 (MTW) zeolite synthesis. The ZSM-12 zeolite derived from RHS was prepared by hydrothermal method at 150 °C in the presence of tetraethylammonium hydroxide. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were grown in zeolite substrates using a solid state reaction. The crystallization of ZSM-12 zeolite and ZnO/ZSM-12 nanocomposite (NC) was monitored by XRD, FTIR and SEM, TEM, and BET techniques. It was found that complete crystallization of ZSM-12 zeolite phase was achieved after 6 days. The XRD patterns declared the presence of both ZnO NPs and ZSM-12 zeolite in NC. The SEM image of ZSM-12 and NC demonstrated large spherical aggregates with size diameter of 2.5 µm. The TEM image of ZSM-12 showed formation of ZnO NPs with particle size ~ 35 nm on ZSM-12 zeolite. The BET results indicated that pore volume and surface area of ZnO/ZSM-12 NC was bigger than ZSM-12 zeolite. On the basis of the obtained experimental results, it was founded that ZnO NPs were encapsulated into channels of ZSM-12 zeolite.