Designable Synthesis of Layered Silicates and Tunable Interlayer Expanded to Zeolites.

Layered zeolitic silicates and corresponding interlayer-expanded porous materials exhibit attractive application potential in wide fields. Nonetheless, designable synthesis and structure analysis of layered silicates remain challenging. Herein, two kinds of layered silicates are synthesized using different di-quaternary ammonium-type organic structure-directing agents (OSDAs).

Directing Highly -Axis-Oriented ZSM-5 Nanosheets with Pre-estimated Bifunctional Imidazole Cations.

An -topology nanosheet zeolite with a highly -axis-oriented structure has rarely been reported but with a great potential for industrial applications. Theoretical calculations on the interaction energies between the skeleton and ionic liquid molecules indicated the possibility of preferential crystal growth along a specific direction, according to which highly -oriented ZSM-5 nanosheets were synthesized from commercially available 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium and layered silicate sources. The imidazolium molecules directed the structure formation and meanwhile acted as zeolite growth modifiers to restrict the crystal growth perpendicular to the plane, which induced unique -axis-orientated thin sheets with ∼12 nm thickness.