Conversion of coal wastes into waste-cleaning materials. Quarterly progress report, January 1, 1997--March 31, 1997

In this report, we present more detailed study on the microstructure and chemical compositions of the MCM-41 phase converted from Conemiaugh ash. The converted mesoporous material was analyzed by TEM and the Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy in the TEM. This part of the work was done in collaboration with Princeton University. The hexagonal mesoporous structure was found to have a pore size about 26. 1 {Angstrom} with a Si/Al mole ratio of 13.4. In addition, we studied the conversion of several other fly ashes with a wide range of chemical compositions to mesoporous aluminosilicates. It was found that both Eddystone and Goudey fly ashes can be successfully converted into MCM-41 aluminosilicates. Moreover, besides working on the synthesis of aluminosilicate mesoporous materials by fusion of fly ash and Ca(OH){sub 2} powder. The nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms and XRD patterns of this mesoporous material using Ca(OH){sub 2} were similar to those of mesoporous material using NaOH. It is not clear at the moment whether the mesoporous materials using Ca(OH){sub 2} contains any Ca or not. If it odes, then the mesoporous materials synthesized with Ca(OH){sub 2} may be very useful for SO{sub 2}/NO gas adsorption in pollutant emission control by the reaction between those gases with Ca