Novel hydrothermal synthesis of mesoporous zeolite mordenite

Zeolites are microporous three dimensional molecular sieves which have widespread applications in agriculture, water and wastewater treatments, petrochemical industries, oil refinery and so on. In fact, the presence of Al atoms in their structures causes the ion-exchange and acidic properties resulting in extraordinary utilization in different scientific and industrial areas [1-4]. One of the most useful zeolite frameworks is MOR-type (mordenite) which was determined by Meier in 1961. Mordenite usually regarded as a mono-dimensional zeolite utilized in separation, catalysis and purification processes due to its small and uniform pore size, high internal surface area, controlled chemistry and flexible framework [5,6]. There are many routes to introduce mesoporosity into zeolites structures such as dealumination, desilication, hard and soft templating etc. An interesting another way for this purpose is to form microporous zeolitic nanocrystals which connected to each other through larger pores [7]. Several researchers have assessed the synthesis of mesoporous zeolite mordenite via templating and dealumination methods [6,8]. However, in this study, we have investigated the preparation of mesoporous well-defined zeolite mordenite using an easy hydrothermal method and with the aid of commercial available zeolite mordenite microcrystals. The prepared product could have potential to utilize in various industrial applications.