Synthesis, charecterization and application of silver incorporated mesoporous zeolite

Abstract

Nowadays one of the greatest challenges is to save our people from polluted air and water. Porous materials such as zeolites appear to be a promising and sustainable candidate for the solution of air and water pollution. In this research, silver nanoparticles impregnated mesoporous zeolite was synthesized. Initially, for the synthesis of mesoporous zeolite the silica was extracted from agricultural waste materials rice husk ash (RHA). After synthesized of silver impregnated mesoporous zeolite it was used in two different kinds of objective. First one is it was used in nano filter preparation for purification of air and water. Due to the smaller porosity of zeolite, toxics materials such as Pb, As, Cr etc. were trapped in zeolite network besides this Ag-NPs destroyed the micro-organisms those were trapped in zeolite network. Therefore, a successful development of nano-filter was prepared and activate to remove or to reduce the toxics up to tolerable limit from the testing samples. And the second objective was the nanocomposite used as catalyst in organic reaction. As the catalytic activity is related to the number of active sites on the catalyst surface. Finally, silver incorporated mesoporous zeolite before and after application was characterized by surface Plasmon resonance using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The morphology and elemental composition were characterized by scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). In conclusion, mesoporous zeolite was synthesized and applied in different purpose by cost effective and green synthetic method. Key words: Mesoporous Zeolite, Nanocomposite, Nano filter, Micro-organism.