ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Wet chemical extraction of silicon from natural palygorskite for preparing a mesoporous molecular sieve of Al-SBA-16

Yuan Guan, Shaomang Wang, Cheng Sun, Guang Yi, Xinquan Wu, Lu Chen, and Xingdong Ma

Changzhou University, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: gywsm@cczu.edu.cn

Abstract: Three-dimensional mesoporous molecular sieve, Al-SBA-16, was successfully prepared via a wet chemical route, which involved co-condensation of silicon source from natural palygorskite by alkali-melting extraction, and acidic mixture of templating agent F127 and aluminum sulfate. XRF and Raman spectra confirmed quantitative incorporation of aluminum into ordered cubic mesostructure. Pyridine-probed Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and ¹H magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance showed a doubling of the Brønsted and Lewis acidity after aluminum activation. At neutral pH, the Al-SBA-16 was used as an adsorbent for the removal of aniline and basic fuchsin with the maximum adsorption capacities of 46.22 and 70.08 mg g⁻¹, respectively. Adsorption kinetics and isotherm indicated that adsorption of aniline and basic fuchsin was occurred by their lone pair electrons on N atom interacting with the Brønsted and Lewis acid sites of Al-SBA-16. The adsorbed material could be easily regenerated by a simple process of acid washing. It was reused for five times with basic fuchsin removal rate still up to above 90%.

Keywords: Natural palygorskite ; Al-SBA-16 ; Acidic property ; Aniline ; Basic fuchsin 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-019-00817-7

Chemical Papers 73 (11) 2655–2666 (2019)