Post modification of zeolites for better adsorbent and catalyst

초록

Zeolite molecular sieves are widely used in various industrial applications, primarily for adsorption and separation. The adsorption properties of zeolites are closely related to their micropore structure and functionality. Thus, tuning zeolite structures for specific applications is highly desirable, albeit technically challenging. In my presentation, I will introduce that a wide range of organic groups (e.g. alkyls, phenyls, organohalides, thiols, and amines) can be covalently or (acid/base) chemically functionalized onto the interior pore walls of zeolite FAU, MOR, LTL, and MFI to systematically ‘tune’ their effective pore diameters with respect to the size of organic groups and ‘give rise to’ a specific organic functionality within their pores. Thereby, post-functionalization?with?organic?compounds enables fine-tuning the adsorption properties of aluminosilicate zeolites. Functionalized zeolites can separate ethylene from ethane with an unprecedented ideal-adsorbed-solution-theory selectivity of ~5876 (Figure 1), which is ~90 times better than state-of-the-art zeolite sieving adsorbents. In addition, thiol and amine grafting may be used to produce zeolites as supports for various metal nanoparticles, such as Au and Ag, with outstanding dispersion inside the channel system, and these metal-supported zeolites have potential applications in a wide range of catalytic reactions.