Rapid ultrasound assisted hydrothermal synthesis of highly pure nanozeolite X from fly ash for efficient treatment of industrial effluent

Nanoporous green materials like nanozeolite has been in focus for their superb efficiency to treat industrial wastewater. The study reports ultrasound assisted hydrothermal method as a very fast method to convert industrial fly ash from different sources of eastern India to nanozeolite X for efficient removal of toxic dyes and metals from industrial effluent. The pure nanosized zeolite X was synthesized rapidly at 20 min of ultrasound treatment after alkali fusion. The efficiency of nanozeolite X was determined in terms of the adsorption capacity towards various divalent ions such as Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺, Ni²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ as well as various dyes such as methylene blue, crystal violet, indigo carmine, and Congo red. In comparison to commercially available microporous Zeolite X (a maximum of 120.43 mg g^-1 for Pb²⁺ and 134.62 mg g^-1 by for methylene blue), all synthesized nanozeolite X shows high adsorption capacity for metals (a maximum of 196.24 mg g^-1 for Pb²⁺) as well as dyes (193.45 mg g^-1 for methylene blue). Highly pure nanozeolite X has shown immense potential for treatment of real time industrial wastewater.