Physicochemical Characteristics and Growth Mechanisms of the Aluminosilicate Nanoparticles for Synthesis of Clinoptilolite

In order to understand the growth behaviors of the aluminosilicate species in the initial hydrothermal process and thereafter synthesis of clinoptilolites with high purity, the physicochemical characteristics of the aluminosilicate nanoparticles were elucidated by small angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, Ultra‐Violet Raman (UV‐Raman) and Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectra. The results demonstrated that the aluminosilicate nanoparticles presented the first decreased surface fractal (Ds) values and then an increased Ds values in the initial reaction time of before 120 h. After that, the fractal transformations from Ds to mass fractal (Dm) occurred with the extensions of reaction time (120–144 h), but the decreased Dm values appeared after 144 h. Therefore, their growth mechanisms from uniform dispersions to aggregation, and even assembly were proposed. The aluminosilicate nanoparticles in the hydrothermal synthesis process of clinoptilolite (CP) were explored by SAXS and other characterizations. Their physicochemical features elucidated that the structural transformations between surface fractal and mass fractal during crystallization played a critical role in fractal evolution of the aluminosilicate nanoparticles. Their growth mechanism in an early crystallization stage of the synthesized CPs was proposed.