A review on the use of zeolites to create valuable paper products and paper-like adsorbent materials

Zeolites are used for a range of applications ranging from fillers in paper for bulk, low cost applications to gas adsorbents and catalysts due to their microporous structures and high surface activity. Current adsorption technology uses zeolites in the form of beads or pellets for gas adsorption but has issues relating to increased energy consumption due to high pressure drop as well as low recovery due to mass transfer limitations. Novel non-particulate adsorbent structures have been developed to overcome these problems. These structured adsorbents unfortunately have very low loading of zeolite, thereby limiting their usefulness. In papermaking, zeolites are used as fillers primarily to improve optical properties, bulkiness, printability, and to increase retention at the wet end. This review considers these two varying applications of zeolites. The first part of the review addresses the use of papermaking techniques to prepare zeolite Sheet structures using lignocellulosic fibres as a template or substrate. The advantages of such structures along with necessary improvements and further work will be discussed. The second part of the review provides a general overview on the potential use of zeolites as fillers in papermaking for various applications. We also discuss the retention and optical properties when zeolites are used as fillers in laboratory papermaking.