Preparation of high silica microporous zeolite SSZ-13 using solid waste silica fume as silica source

Silica fume (SF) is a kind of solid waste that produced in the process of industrial silicon smelting. The disposal of SF for environmental problem is of great urgency. Here, a facile and novel one-step approach of high silica microporous materials SSZ-13 (SF-SSZ-13) were hydrothermally synthesized using silica fume (SF) as silica source. This method requires significantly shorter reaction times (48?h) compared to conventional SSZ-13. The as-synthesized SF-SSZ-13 exhibited high purity structure, popcorn-like morphology, and a large BET surface area of 545.74?m²?g^?1. Additionally, on the basis of controlled growth under different hydrothermal times, the formation mechanism of the SF-SSZ-13 outlined for further extension to other materials. The results on time- and energy-efficient of SF-based preparation of SSZ-13 pave the way for the reducing the cost of production of raw materials and decreasing environment load of solid waste, and also extend the application of silica fume.