For preparing zeolites, structure directing agents like Tetrapropylammonium hydroxide is used. I do not want to use calcination for removing these. Can anyone suggest any other method to remove these structure directing agents.
In general calcination is better since it removes all organic carbons. There are some reports wherein UV light irradiation is done as non thermal calcination for removal of organic template. Apart from this refluxing in organic solvent like ethanol also removes template from as synthesized mesoporous silica materials. For information you can go through this paper :Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 76 (2004) 17–22.
Ion exchange the zeolite with another cation with a higher affinity for the zeolite. Which cation to use, will depend on the framework you are preparing. You could for example try to leech TPA by flowing 3M KCl through a column containing the zeolite. Alternatively you could try to extract TPA+ as an ion pair with for example sodium benzoate, using hexane as the extracting solvent.
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