Zeolites in the age of advanced materials: from structural refinement to scalable green synthesis and emerging applications
Authors :- Parmar M.; Shahabuddin S.; Bandyopadhyay M.; Gaur R.
Publication :- Emergent Materials (Springer), 2025
Zeolites are low-cost, porous, inorganic aluminosilicate adsorbent minerals consisting of intercrystallite cage-like structures. Zeolites have tremendous properties such as negative charge framework, large surface area, porous structure, acidic nature, shape selectivity, thermal stability, etc. These properties make it very demanding for a variety of applications, like water purification, catalysis, energy storage, detergents, molecular sieves, and many more. Zeolites can be naturally occurring or synthesized synthetically. The synthesis procedure of most of the zeolite is quite a tedious and lengthy process. To make the synthesis process cost-effective and sustainable, synthesizing zeolites from natural precursors such as kaolin coal fly ash, bauxite, etc. is in trend nowadays, which has been discussed thoroughly in the present research. The classification and comparison between various synthesis methods of zeolites have not been explored by many researchers, which has been explored in the present work. This review summarises all the key points about zeolite, starting with its nomenclature, classification, structure, properties, role of precursors, the routes and process of synthesis, and sustainable synthesis of zeolites using natural precursors. The review also encompasses diverse applications of zeolite including adsorption, catalysis, water remediation, ion-exchange, photocatalysis, biomedical and the researches that have been done along the research gaps and plan, which signifies the novelty of the present work. This review provides a background and fundamentals of research for future developments as well.