Hydrothermal conversion of FAU zeolite into RUT zeolite in TMAOH system

The highly crystalline and pure RUT (RUB-10) zeolite could be obtained from the hydrothermal conversion of FAU zeolite used as a crystalline Si/Al source in tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH) media. As compared to amorphous silica/Al(OH)3 and amorphous silica/γ-Al2O3 sources, the crystallization rate for the formation of RUT zeolite was clearly faster when FAU zeolite was employed as the Si/Al source. Moreover, it was found that the hydrothermal conversion of FAU zeolite into RUT zeolite depended significantly upon the Si/Al ratio of the starting FAU zeolite. FAU zeolite could be hydrothermally converted into the highly crystalline and pure RUT zeolite under the following molar ratios: Si/Al = 17–28, TMAOH/SiO2 = 0.2 and H2O/SiO2 = 3–7.