Conversion of coal wastes into waste-cleaning materials. Quarterly progress report, January 1--March 31, 1996

It is shown that fly ash can be used to participate in the formation of mesoporous materials. The dissolution of silicate species changes the surfactant/Si molar ratio in the silicate-surfactant solutions precipitating the MCM-41 phase. The current results demonstrate that fly ash can be used to form mesoporous materials and the impurities in the fly ash is not detrimental to the formation of MCM-41 phase. Although the MCM-41 phase can be formed with fly ash in the silicate-surfactant solutions, no MCM-41 phase can be made with solutions of surfactant/Si=0.35. The study so far indicates that fly ash has the potential to be used to form mesoporous materials. However, in order to make further progress, the concentration of silicate and aluminate species in the solutions needs to be controlled. In other words, the chemistry of the fly ash solutions needs to be studied in more detail. In the next few months, the authors plan to study the effects of using different fly ash solutions for the formation of zeolites as the first step in controlling the chemistry of fly ash solutions. Once the chemical composition of the fly ash can be controlled, it may be possible to increase the amount of participation of fly ash to the formation of mesoporous materials