INVESTIGATION ON THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF ZEOLITE PARTICLES AS POTENTIAL INSULATORS

Abstract

This study presents the results of the thermal performance of two different zeolites in heat absorption and heat release investigated under multiple heating-cooling cycles. The specific focus is highlighting the influence of zeolitic structure in comparison to the raw kaolin as their precursor to evaluate the role of porous materials. Kaolin is a naturally occurring mineral lacking a porous structure, which conducts heat through typical solid material mechanisms and quickly equilibrates with the temperature of the surroundings. In contrast, the porous nature of zeolite creates abundant air-filled cavities, which establish a thermal buffer zone leading to temperature discrepancies with the environment. At the equilibrium state at 70 ^oC, zeolite Y exhibits a temperature buffer of 3.5 °C, while zeolite 4A demonstrates a smaller difference of 2.2 °C. These findings are consistent with the research on porous volumes of the synthesized zeolite Y (3.59 ´ 10^–2 cm³ g^–1) and zeolite 4A (1.85 ´ 10^–2 cm³ g^–1). In the estimation section, heat conductivity coefficients and specific heat capacities of these materials were determined which resulted in good agreements with heat behavior of these zeolitic materials. Consequently, the applicability of these zeolites as external insulators can be expected if the thickness of the material layers is optimized according to the intended temperature range.