Research progress on green synthesis of various high-purity zeolites from natural material-kaolin

The synthesis of zeolite has more than 100 years of history, its special physicochemical properties make it widely used as adsorbents, ion exchange materials, excellent performance catalysts and other applications in environmental protection, petrochemical, petroleum refining and other fields. However, the synthesis process of zeolite is not completely "green" from the development of recent years, which runs counter to the development theme of today's green chemistry and green engineering. Thus, the green synthesis of zeolite has become an inevitable trend. This article is represented by kaolin, which is rich in resources and high in aluminosilicate content. Beginning with the brief introduction on zeolites and revolution process of sustainable green synthetic zeolite, it is then followed by introduction in detail of the multiple synthesis methods, synthesis mechanism and latest research progress of zeolite, and the future development trend is prospected. The focus of the current green synthesis route of zeolite is to continue to develop new zeolite green synthesis methods and increase the basic theoretical research of zeolite synthesis. Simultaneously, the existing green zeolite synthesis processes are organically combined to achieve mutual coordination between the processes, which is also the research direction of zeolite green synthesis. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.