Direct synthesis of mesoporous aluminosilicates from Indonesian kaolin clay without calcination

The transformation of kaolin to amorphous mesoporous aluminosilicate was investigated in this study. We demonstrated the use of koalin as silica and alumina sources without prior pretreatment. Two steps synthesis method were carried out; hydrothermal reaction at 80 °C, followed by addition of mesoporogen cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTABr) surfactant. We observed that prolonging the synthesis period improves the surface area of the aluminosilicate with enhances mesopore volume and surface acidity.