LTA zeolite monoliths with hierarchical trimodal porosity as highly efficient microreactors for strontium capture in continuous flow

LTA zeolite monoliths (6 mm diameter, 3 cm length) featuring a hierarchical trimodal network of micro-/meso- and macropores (obtained by either controlling the nucleation step of LTA crystallization into nanocrystals or by creating mesopores into micronic crystals by using organosilane surfactant) were used for strontium capture in aqueous medium. LTA monoliths were compared to other LTA zeolite architectures: LTA microcrystals, commercial LTA beads and bimodal micro-/macroporous LTA zeolite monoliths. In batch mode, the presence of mesopores allowed to increase remarkably by a factor 15 the diffusion of ions, whereas macropores had no influence on ions transport. In flow mode, only LTA monoliths featuring flow-through macropores proved suitable as microreactors. The trimodal LTA monoliths were 1000 times more efficient than packed-beds of LTA beads, and 4 times than bimodal (micro-/macroporous) LTA monoliths due to higher rates of diffusion. Trimodal LTA monoliths were able to treat efficiently 4 L of Sr2+ solution (10 mg L−1) with 1 mL of material at a flow rate of 0.5 mL min−1 (or 1 m h−1); ie. 4200 bed volumes (BV) were efficiently treated at a flow rate of 34 BV h−1, with no Sr2+ detectable by ionic-chromatography in the effluent. This result highlights the fact that the multiscale pore architecture engineering of an adsorbent is crucial for process intensification: macropores allow uniform mass transport of solutions with low pressure drop while the generation of mesopores in zeolites leads to faster ionic transport and more efficient crystal use in cation-exchange processes, both in batch and flow modes.