Microporous crystalline materials preparation aluminosilicate zeolites

More promising for reactive separations involving gas phase reactions appears to be the development and use in such applications of microporous zeolite and carbon molecular sieve (Itoh and Haraya [2.25] Strano and Foley [2.26]) membranes. Zeolites are crystalline microporous aluminosilicate materials, with a regular three-dimensional pore structure, which are relatively stable to high temperatures, and are currently used as catalysts or catalyst supports for a number of high temperature reactions. One of the earliest mentions of the preparation of zeolite membranes is by Mobil workers (Haag and Tsikoyiannis... 

Crystalline aluminosilicate zeolites are prepared via a hydrothermal synthesis using a silica source, in the presence of a small quaternary ammonium molecule. The inorganic framework organizes around the molecular template instead of the LCT, as iUustraled in Figure 12.1b. After removing the organic template, the resulting materials exhibit weU-defined crystalline phases and periodic micropore structures. ... 

At which extent the traditional definition of zeolites is still valid Are zeolite scientists still dealing with "crystalline aluminosilicates containing pores and cavities of molecular dimensions" [ 1 J, or did they create new materials original enough to render this time-honoured definition obsolete Indeed, the zeolite community has pushed afar the borders of his field of interest, as any healthy body of scientists has to do. Zeolite researchers presently deal with nanopores instead of micropores, self-assembly instead of synthesis, and they prepare periodical structures from any comer of the periodical table, well beyond the limits of the class of ordered silicates. The evolution of the subject (and of the vocabulary used to describe it) has been astounding and somewhat refreshing but the core of the activity of the zeolite scientist is still the same as it was when Barrer described the first documented synthetic zeolite in 1948 [2] to apply up-to-date characterisation techniques to the design, synthesis and application of periodical self-assembled objects. 

The diversity of ordered porous solids increases at an astonishing rate, particularly among the readily crystallised MOFs, and continues to olfer novel materials properties. There is no obvious barrier to the synthesis of a myriad of new zeolite, zeotype or hybrid structures. Challenges remain, however. For zeolitic aluminosilicates, the 10 A pore size restriction remains an important barrier, and an enantiomerically pure zeolite is still out of reach. For nonsilicate crystalline microporous solids, thermal and hydrothermal stability, rather than framework geometry, limit their applicability, since fully crystalline germanates and carboxylates with pores in the mesoporous range now exist, and these solids have enormous specific surface areas. In these hybrid solids the ability to choose chirality in the building units indicates that it will be possible to prepare these in chiral form the first examples have already been prepared. 

---