Crystalline Microporous Organosilicates with Reversed Functionalities of Organic and Inorganic Components for Room-Temperature Gas Sensing.

A deepened investigation on an innovative organic-inorganic hybrid material, referred to as ECS-14 (where ECS = Eni carbon silicates), revealed the possibility to use them as gas sensors. Indeed, among ECS phases, the crystalline state and the hexagonal microplateletlike morphology characteristic of ECS-14 seemed favorable properties to obtain continuous and uniform films. ECS-14 phase was used as functional material in screen-printable compositions and was thus deposited by drop coating for morphological, structural, thermal, and electrical characterizations.

The role of boric acid in the synthesis of Eni Carbon Silicates.

The influence of H3BO3 on the crystallization of hybrid organic-inorganic aluminosilicates denoted as Eni Carbon Silicates (ECS's) was investigated. Syntheses were carried out at 100 °C under different experimental conditions, using bridged silsesquioxanes of general formula (EtO)3Si-R-Si(OEt)3 (R = -C6H4- (BTEB), -C10H6- (BTEN) and -C6H4-C6H4- (BTEBP)), in the presence of equimolar concentrations of NaAlO2 and H3BO3. The study, involving the synthesis of three different but structurally related phases (ECS-14 from BTEB, ECS-13 here described for the first time from BTEN, and ECS-5 from BTEBP), confirmed a catalytic role for H3BO3 which in general increased the crystallization rate and improved the product quality in terms of amount of crystallized phase (crystallinity), size of the crystallites and phase purity, while it was weakly incorporated in trace amounts in the framework of ECS's.

Hierarchical hybrid organic-inorganic materials with tunable textural properties obtained using zeolitic-layered precursor.

Novel layered zeolitic organic-inorganic materials have been synthesized using a two-dimensional zeolite precursor IPC-1P prepared by a top-down approach from zeolite UTL. The formation of porous materials containing organic linkers or polyhedral oligomeric siloxane covalently bonded to zeolite layers in the interlayer space was confirmed by a variety of characterization techniques (N2/Ar sorption analysis, XRD, (29)Si and (13)C NMR, TEM). The organic-inorganic porous hybrids obtained by intercalation with silsesquioxane posessed layered morphology and contained large crystalline domains.

Porous materials in catalysis: challenges for mesoporous materials.

The discovery of ordered mesoporous materials has opened great opportunities for new applications in heterogeneous catalysis, thanks to their hitherto unprecedented intrinsic structural features. Evidence shows that, however, these materials have not met the researchers' expectations mainly because of the severe limitations related to the strength of acid sites and to the thermal/hydrothermal stability, significantly lower than those of zeolites and due to the amorphous nature of the mesostructured materials. These features are highlighted in the first part of this review, where the peculiarities of mesostructured materials are compared with those of zeolite catalysts in some reactions of industrial interest.

A highly crystalline microporous hybrid organic-inorganic aluminosilicate resembling the AFI-type zeolite.

ECS-14, a crystalline microporous hybrid organic-inorganic aluminosilicate, has been synthesized by using 1,4-bis-(triethoxysilyl)-benzene (BTEB) as a source of silica. Its structure contains a system of linear channels with 12-membered ring openings, running along the [001] direction, resembling the pore architecture of the AFI framework type.

Ring opening of methylcyclohexane over platinum-loaded zeolites.

The activity of different platinum-loaded zeolites (Mordenite, ZSM-12, ZSM-5, ZSM-23) was investigated in the hydroconversion of methylcyclohexane (MCH), in the context of upgrading highly aromatic distillates for fuel blending. In all cases, conversion of MCH proceeds according to a pathway where the primary products are a mixture of dimethylcyclopentanes and ethylcyclopentane formed by isomerization and ring contraction of MCH. The primary products undergo consecutive ring-opening reactions with formation of n- and isoheptanes.

Ti coordination in titanium silicalite-1.

Progressive isomorphous incorporation of TiIV (or BIII) heteroatoms into the MFI structure of as-synthesized silicalite-1 caused a decrease in the amount of siloxy groups (anions), requisite for counter-balancing the structural directing agent (cation), as determined using 1H MAS NMR to quantify the silanol protons H-bonded to the siloxy oxygen. This revealed the negative charge on the incorporated heteroatoms, identifying them as TiO5 (or BO4) sites.

Metal Substitution in Keggin-Type Tridecameric Aluminum-Oxo-Hydroxy Clusters.

The species resulting from a typical preparation for metal-substituted hybrids of the Keggin tridecamer, Al or [AlOAl(OH)(OH)], were examined by performing Al NMR on the solutions during aging and by studying the precipitated sulfate salts via solid state Al NMR and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Aqueous mixtures (0.25 mol L) of AlCl and another metal ion (M), in a 12:1 mole ratio (Al:M), where M = Fe, Zn, Ga, In, Sn, La, and Bi, were subjected to forced hydrolysis by addition of NaOH (1.