Rubik’s cube shaped organic template free hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of zeolite NaA for CO2 adsorption

[Display omitted] •Organic Template free Zeolite NaA (LTA) was successfully synthesized using hydrothermal method.•The microstructures of synthesized zeolite NaA was found to be Rubik’s cube like stuructre.•CO2 adsorption studies shows the type I adsorption isotherm according to the IUPAC classification criteria.•CO2 adsorption isotherm were very well fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm. Here in this work a simple and direct method to synthesize Rubik’s cube-like Linda Type (LTA) zeolite NaA structure is reported. Linda Type (LTA) zeolite was synthesized by hydrothermal method without using any organic template additives. The molar ratio of 3.165Na2O:Al2O3:1.926SiO2:128H2O have been used to prepare the zeolite NaA hydrogel. The thermal stability of the synthesized zeolite NaA was studied through the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the crystallinity of the synthesized zeolite is good and the material is of high purity. Through the FTIR study, functional groups belonging to the zeolite NaA was confirmed. From the FESEM analysis, morphology of the synthesized sample was found to be Rubik’s cube-like structure. The elemental composition of the material was studied using the EDAX analysis and the ratio of Si:Al was found to be ∼ 1. Further from the SAED patterns of the prepared sample, it was observed that the material is polycrystalline in nature. From the nitrogen adsorption/desorption results the zeolite NaA samples was found to be mesoporous in nature. The pore size of the samples have been obtained using the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) analysis. The CO2 adsorption isotherm study was carried out at 298 K and the isotherm was fitted by using Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm.