## 3 Results and Discussion
### Characterization of the Zeolite Sediments
Characteristic peaks of clinoptiolite (CP) were found at 10.06 A, 9.01 A, 4.78 A, 4.02 A, 3.94 A, 3.41 A, 3.03 A, and 2.88 A in all sediments [43]. In the microparticle size of NZ (NZ-M), small to medium peaks of CP were found, which became sharp and slightly shifted to the right side in the nanoparticle size of NZ (NZ-N), which indicated a possible impact of the pretreatment on the modification of the particle size of NZ. Similar to NZ-N, sharp peaks of CP were found in LDH-N, HCl-N, NaOH-N, and NaCl-N against their microparticle size variants, which, again, showed the possible impact of the pretreatment process of extracting the nanosized particles of the NZ sediments. Especially in NaCl-N, sharp vibrations of CP minerals were found along with broad peaks, which were also observed slightly in its microparticle size variant. In addition to CP, calcite (1.60 A, 1.54 A), quartz (2.18 A, 2.59 A), and feldspar (3.94 A, 2.88 A) minerals were also found in the crystalline composition of natural and modified zeolites [44]. Multiple characteristic peaks in LDH-N indicated effective growth of LDH crystals on NZ particles, and peak intensity showed a higher degree of crystallinity in LDH-NZ composites [22; 45]. Likewise, an additional peak of hydroxysodalite was found at 2.31 A in the NaOH-treated NZ sample [42]. The morphological structures of natural and modified NZ sediments were analyzed by SEM analysis (Figure 2). The SEM analysis indicated that by converting microparticle size into nanoparticle size, all sediments showed smoother surfaces and developed surface porosity, which was quite anticipated. It enhanced specific surface area, which was also confirmed by BET analysis of sediments (Table 3). While treating NZ sediments with alkali, acid and LDH made the NZ surface rough, indicating accumulation of Al and Si clusters, which was also found by FTIR analysis of NZ and its modified variants [46]. HCl and NaOH-treated NZ showed higher surface porosity with channeled and tubular structures, while LDH-treated NZ surface became amorphous due to the accumulation of Al-O and Si-O clusters during pretreatment. Figure 1: XRD analysis of natural and modified zeolite sediments. (**A**) NZ-M, natural zeolite with microparticle size; LDH-M, LDH-zeolite with microparticle size; HCl-M, HCl-zeolite with microparticle size; NaOH-M, NaOH-zeolite with microparticle size; NaCl-M, NaCl-zeolite in the microparticle size. (**B**) NZ-N, natural zeolite with nanoparticle size; HCl-N, HCl-zeolite with nanoparticle size; NaOH-N, NaOH-zeolite with nanoparticle size; LDH-N, LDH-zeolite with nanoparticle size; NaCl-N, NaCl-zeolite in the nanoparticle size. The FTIR spectra of collected and modified NZ sediments indicated the presence of diverse surface functional groups (Figure 3). Bands at 3500-3700 cm\({}^{-1}\) indicated the bending mode of OH, indicating water molecules in all natural and modified zeolite sediments, which were steeper and sharper in NZ-N and NaCl-N [42]. These bands and small peaks presenting water molecules appeared again at the 1600-1650 cm\({}^{-1}\) wavelength range. The intensities of OH were slightly affected by acidity (HCl), alkalinity (NaOH), and LDH treatment of NZ. Also, small vibrations of NO\({}_{3}\)\({}^{-}\) groups were found in LDH-treated NZ, which indicated successful incorporation between LDH and NZ particles [41]. The bands at the 500-700 cm\({}^{-1}\) range were assigned to Si-O groups, while Al-O peaks were located in the 1000 cm\({}^{-1}\) and 1500 cm\({}^{-1}\) wavelength ranges [47]. The strong peaks at 800 cm\({}^{-1}\) were assigned to Al-O and Si-O groups, which were located again at 2500 cm\({}^{-1}\). Water molecules were found combined with Al-O and Si-O, indicating the occurrence of hydroxides of Al and Si [18]. Overall, most of the peaks and bands were found at strong intensity, which was ascribed to the strong absorbance of NZ and its modified variants. Thermal stability of NZ and its fabricated zeolite sediments was studied as a function of weight loss against increasing temperature (Figure 4).