Nezihe Ayas, Nasrin Pourmoghadam, Tolga Kaan Kanatlı
Structural pillaring is a widely used technique that improves the adsorbent's surface area and interplanar spacing. Aluminum is a frequently utilized pillaring metal due to its unique ability to create Al13 polymer structures in montmorillonite materials. Iron and zirconium are also often used pillaring metals; however, when employed as stand-alone pillaring agents, they are known to be less effective; so, they are typically utilized in combination with Al in bimetallic form and are reported to improve the pillaring action on bentonite clay. However, there are no instances in the literature of them being used in trimetallic form on bentonite clay. In this work, monometallic Al/Bentonite, Fe/Bentonite, Zr/ Bentonite and the trimetallic Al-Fe-Zr/Bentonite pillared clays were synthesized and characterized. An OH/metal ratio of 2:1 was used. The adsorbents were analyzed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and their interplanar distances were calculated. They were further analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and N2 Adsorption/Desorption analysis via Bruner, Emmett, Teller method (BET). Using the Bragg equation on XRD patterns, the interplanar layers of the Al, Fe and Zr pillared bentonite materials were calculated as 19.0, 16.9 and 4.0 Å respectively. Al/Bentonite was used in the gasification of sugar beet pulp to determine if the adsorbent has catalytic activity as well. The H2 and CO2 concentrations of the gas product were observed as 51 and 36% respectively, which is a promising result. Adsorption tests are being continued.
Keywords: Adsorbent, Hydrogen, Pillaring, Bentonite, Trimetallic
