Improving the quality of patchouli oil by adsorption process using surfactant modified of natural zeolite

This research concerns with the development of natural material i.e. natural zeolite. Natural zeolite were modified by surfactant treatment. Material modification has been done using cetyltrimethyllammonium bromide as cationic surfactant for mesopore template. The physicochemical characters of natural material modified and unmodified was investigated by using XRD, FTIR, nitrogen physisorption, and SEM-EDX. The XRD was used to show crystallinity structure of natural material modified and unmodified. Surfactant treatment caused decreasing crystallinity of natural zeolite. The FTIR spectra showed characteristic peaks for natural zeolite modified and unmodified, the bands around 3400-3500 cm⁻¹ and 1635-1641 cm⁻¹ correspond to adsorbed water and bands around finger print area were characteristic for silica and alumina. Meanwhile physisorption nitrogen profiles gave information that the pore modification by surfactant. The morphologies of natural material modified and unmodified as well as chemical composition of the particles were shown by SEM-EDX. The usage of modified material decrease acidity number into 19.47% than unmodified material, which is 7,62%. The GC analysis showed that percentage of patchouli alcohol increases and new peaks were not identified indicated there was not any reaction appeared.