Fabrication of Y-type zeolite films by electrophoretic deposition

In the present work, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) has been applied to formation of precursor films consisting of Y-type zeolite particles for fabrication of desired films. The fragile precursor films electrophoretically formed were transformed into continuous dense bodies by hydrothermally treating in reaction mixtures controlled with molar ratio of Na₂O:Al₂O₃:SiO₂:H₂O=8:1:1 2:360. There were no changes in crystalline phase of Y-type zeolite before and after the hydrothermal treatments. From scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations, the microstructural changes, i.e., densification of the precursor films, were considered to proceed in two reaction routes: one is secondary growth of the seed Y-type zeolite particles and the other is nucleation from reaction mixture followed by crystal growth in interparticle pores.