Adsorbent materials prepared from natural resources for environmental applications

The research work developed in the Ph.D. is related to the development of porous solids for environmental applications. In particular, different types of low-cost natural resources and agricultural wastes were used as raw materials for the synthesis of improved adsorbent materials. From one side, a natural kaolinite clay was exploited as a starting material to obtain a nanosized siliceous material with an improved adsorption capacity toward cationic dyes from aqueous phase. On the other hand, two different zeolites X and a zeolite A, that were used for the adsorption of CO2 from the gas phase, were also derived from natural kaolinite samples. Moreover, different MCM-41 type silicas with tailored particle dimensions were prepared from biogenic silica derived from rice husk. Each MCM-41 sample has shown a high dye adsorption capacity from aqueous phase and a high affinity toward toluene and n-hexane molecules in gas phase