Fast synthesis of hierarchical nanosized pure Si-Beta zeolite with low organic template content via the solvent-free method

Nanosized hierarchical pure Si-Beta zeolite was prepared by the solvent-free method. With the assistance of 1% seeds and low organic template content (TEAOH/SiO2 = 0.06), pure Si-Beta zeolite is well crystallized within 16 h, neither fluoride mineralizing agent nor mesoporogen agent. Here we comprehensively investigated the physicochemical properties of the resulting samples, including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, water adsorption, Fourier transform infrared and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). These characterization results suggest that the silicon sources would influence the crystal size, but all samples possessed high surface area (509-647 m(2) g(-1)), pore volume (0.40-0.71 cm(3) g(-1)), and superior hydrophobicity.