Densification of Silica Spheres: A New Pathway to Nano-Dimensioned Zeolite-Based Catalysts.

Nanosized materials are expected to play a unique role in the development of future catalytic processes. Herein, pre-prepared and geometrically well-defined amorphous silica spheres are densified into silica-rich zeolites with nanosized dimensions. After the densification, the obtained nanosized zeolites exhibit the same spherical morphology like the starting precursor but characterized by a drastically reduced size, higher density, and high crystallinity.

Boron-containing MFI-type zeolites with a hierarchical nanosheet assembly for lipase immobilization.

Hierarchical nanosheet assemblies of boron-containing MFI-type zeolites were successfully synthesized using bifunctional surfactant molecules under static conditions. With the optimized Si/B = 50 in the synthesis gel, a material with high specific surface area (483 m g) and a maximum pore size of 6.5 nm suitable for lipase encapsulation was obtained.