Premium
Organic‐Free Interzeolite Transformation in the Absence of Common Building Units
Author(s) -
Qin Wei,
Jain Rishabh,
Robles Hernández Francisco C.,
Rimer Jeffrey D.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201901067
Subject(s) - aluminosilicate , transformation (genetics) , metastability , zeolite , template , materials science , crystallography , chemical physics , chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , catalysis , biochemistry , gene
Zeolite crystals can be used as seeds or aluminosilicate sources in syntheses to control polymorphs and/or reduce the quantity of organics used as structure‐directing agents. A frequently invoked hypothesis for interzeolite transformations is that zeolites share some underlying similarity in structure, most notably in cases pertaining to organic‐free syntheses. Herein, we show for the first time that ZSM‐5 (MFI) can be directly obtained from USY (FAU) through an interzeolite transformation between parent–daughter structures lacking common building units in the absence of a structure‐directing agent and seeds. We show that interzeolite transformation leads to a crystalline product with fewer defects. Our findings also reveal that ZSM‐5 is a metastable intermediate that undergoes further transformation to mordenite (MOR) and quartz. The MFI‐to‐MOR transition is counter to reported trends for which transformations lead to structures with reduced molar volume. Herein, we propose mechanistic arguments that suggest the driving force for interzeolite transformation is more complex than guidelines posited in the literature.