Conversion of coal wastes into waste-cleaning materials. Quarterly progress report, April 1, 1995--June 30, 1995

In the last three months we have studied the ion exchange behavior of the zeolites, converted from fly ash in more detail. In particular, the ion-exchange isotherms of the treated fly ash containing zeolite Y with Cs+ ions were studied. For comparison, the ion exchange isotherms of synthetic zeolite Y and commercial zeolite A were also studied. These results showed that the background materials in the fly ash do not affect the ion exchange performance of the zeolites that the fly ash contains. It is also found that a higher total ion concentration (Na+ plus Cs+) in the solutions results in a higher amount of ions exchanged with the zeolites. The ion exchange of treated fly ash with Co{sup 2+} ions was studied as well. This part of the research was done by Mr. Jorge Moller who was hired starting April 3 for 6 months as a co-op student. In an attempt to broaden the applications of fly ash, investigation into the formation of mesoporous materials from fly ash was initiated. Mesoporous materials were discovered three years ago by scientists at Mobil and have been under active research by many researchers since then. Mesoporous materials have large surface areas with variable pore sizes in the range of >20 angstroms. Potential applications of mesoporous materials include catalysts, absorbents, molecular sieves, etc. If mesoporous materials can be converted from fly ash, it will open up another area of applications for fly ash