OICC Press Iranian Journal of Catalysis 2345-4865 7 3 2024 02 03 Preparation and characterization of template-free mordenite type zeolite and comparison of m-xylene isomerization reaction over mordenite and SAPO-11 EN Zahra Vosoughi Rahbari Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran. Mehrji Khosravan Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran. Ali Nemati Kharat Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Journal Article 2024 02 03 In this work, Mordenite zeolite was successfully synthesized with Si/Al ratio of 18 in absence of organic template. The hydrothermal method was applied for synthesis under optimum conditions: 24 h synthesis time, 180°C temperature and 2 days aging time. The obtained zeolite was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier Transforms infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The prepared sample had total (BET) surface area of 331.63 m2g-1, whereas total pore volume was 0.278 cm3g-1. The catalytic performance of this catalyst was investigated for meta-xylene isomerization reaction in a fixed bed reactor at the 10 bars Pressure, 380°C temperature and 3.35 h-1 Weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of feed. The results compared with a commercial SAPO-11 catalyst (Si/Al = 20) and showed that the mordenite gave better Para/Ortho ratio (63%) and fewer amount of xylene loss (2.11%) compared to SAPO-11.