Environmentally benign synthesis of nanosized aluminophosphate enhanced by microwave heating

Abstract

The problem addressed with our paper is on the efficient utilization of reacting materials for enhanced syntheses of nanosized aluminophosphate molecular sieve by microwave heating, and decreasing or almost eliminating the related waste. The synthesis procedure deals with the environmental issues concerning the future manufacture re-use and disposal of non-reacted chemicals associated with the production of nanosized aluminophosphate. Nanosized AlPO-18 has been prepared by a multicycle synthesis approach via re-using non-reacted compounds from precursor suspensions with minimal requirement of chemical compensation after recovering of crystalline nanoparticles from each step. This approach is implied as environmentally benign and results in almost complete consumption of the organic templates and phosphorous acid without disposing these harmful reagents to the environments. Thus the use of highly expensive and non-desirable chemicals can be reduced and result in reasonable yield while production cost is attained. Also, the use of microwave irradiation leads to the preparation of nanocrystalline material within 5 min, instead of 3 days by using conventional heating, which makes the process economically viable and environmentally benign.