Synthesis and structural study of the Linde Type-A zeolite prepared from kaolinite

The goal of this work is to synthesize and measure the crystal structuras of sodalite-related zeolites using X-ray power diffraction technique. We made a successful attempt to recover the Linde Type A (LTA) zeolite framework using X-ray diffraction data sets. Cation exchange was done in this structure with Cs+ ions, in order to demonstrate the usability of LTA in the nuclear technique. Linde Type A zeolite crystals were synthetized using (NaOH) method from metakaolinite as the starting material. The resulted LTA crystals exhibit cubic and spherical shapes as showned by scanning electron microscopy. In the LTA framework the interchangeable cations are Na+ ions, which were replaced by (H3O)+ and Cs+ ions respectively. We measured the resulted structural changes, using X-ray powder diffraction data in the SIR (Semi Invariant Reconstruction) program package. The measured hkl and intensity data sets are the inputs for structure determination. Due to overlapping reflections, some samples resulted in high R-factor values. However, the resulted LTA-type framework proved to be evident. We refined the atom position in the SHELX program package.