Synthesis and characterization of zeolite X from coal fly ash: a study on anticancer activity

Coal fly ash (CFA) was utilized as a raw material for the synthesis of zeolite X. Zeolite of X-type was synthesised from CFA through alkali fusion tailed by hydrothermal treatment. The main crystal-like stage of fly ash, quartz could be also converted to pure X-type through hydrothermal suitable treatment using SiO2/Al2O3 components of the amorphous stage in coal fly ash along with the gel composition of 14.76 Na2O: 1 Al2O3: 3.5 SiO2: 454 H2O. The properties of zeolite X formed strongly depends on the treatment circumstances and concentrations of raw materials. The synthesised zeolite X from CFA was characterized by XRD, SEM-EDS, HR-TEM, SAED and FTIR which represents the appearance of crystalline quartz and mullite with spherical/hexagonal morphology. The predominant morphology was spherical particle with diameters ranging between 23.80 nm to 190.5 nm. By rising the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of preliminary material, degree of crystallinity also increased maximum at SiO2/Al2O3 is 1.7. The cytotoxic influence of zeolite X on cancer cell lines like HEP2, HT-29, HEPG2 and A549 were evaluated. General outcomes exhibited that cancer cell lines treated with 200 mu g ml(-1) of zeolite X showed the greatest inhibition of cell proliferation and reduction in cell viability. These findings provides preliminary information to determine the prospective utilization of zeolite X as anticancer agent for alternate or complementary therapy.