Abstract:
Maredan natural clay in recent years has been widely used as raw material for zeolite
synthesis, but the results obtained are not good enough because there are still mineral
impurities such as Fe. One of method to remove these impurities is through chemical
and physical activation of Maredan clay. In this study, Maredan natural clay was
leached with 1 M H2SO4 at a temperature of 80oC for 3 hours and then calcined for 3
hours at a temperature of 650 oC. Post activation clay was converted into zeolite using
reflux method. The results of XRF analysis proved that there was a decrease in Fe
content from 8.530% to 7.710%, while silica and alumina levels from Maredan clay
increased after the activation process. The results of the synthesis obtained a type of
zeolite with low Si content with a Si/Al ratio of 1.577.
