Sea Sand as a Silica Source to Hydrothermally Synthesize Analcime

Analcime has demonstrated potential for a variety of applications in technology, especially in adsorption and heterogeneous catalysis. In this study, synthetic analcime was investigated by using sea sand as a silica source. Sea sand was first treated with HNO₃ and NaOH. The pretreated sea sand as the silica resource and Al(NO₃)₃ as the aluminum source were used for the hydrothermal synthesis of analcime with different ratios of Si/Al and Na/Si. The products obtained under different conditions were characterized by X-ray diffraction. The results showed that analcime synthesized using acid-treated sea sand was mixed with other impurities, such as quartz and sodalite. Pure analcime was obtained using alkali-treated sea sand as the silica source. The analcime prepared under an optimized synthesis condition was further investigated via SEM, FT-IR, and TG. The particle size of the prepared analcime ranged from 40 to 50 μm. The adsorption ability of analcime was studied, and the Cu²⁺ adsorption process was found to follow a pseudo-second-order kinetic model.