Structural Characterization of Nanosheet-type MFI Zeolite

Abstract

Zeolites are microporous crystalline aluminosilicates and have ordered micropores of a few Å in the structure. Zeolites are widely used in petrochemistry and fine-chemical synthesis because strong acid sites within their uniform micropores enable size- and shape-selective catalysis. Here we show that appropriately designed bifunctional surfactants can direct the formation of zeolite structures on the mesoporous and microporous length scales simultaneously, and thus produce nanosheet-type MFI zeolite that are only 2 nm thick, which corresponds to the b-axis dimension of a single MFI unit cell. The nanosheet-type MFI zeolite showd a significantly increased surface area, high catalytic activities, and excellent thermal and hydrothermal stability.