Structure of ITQ-4, a New Pure Silica Polymorph Containing Large Pores and a Large Void Volume

Abstract

The new pure silica polymorph ITQ-4, structure code IFR, Si32O64, monoclinic I2/m a = 18.65243(13), b = 13.49597(8), c = 7.63109(6) Å, β = 101.9781(5)°, is a zeolitic material containing a large sinusoidal channel with 12-member ring windows as minimum apertures. Its void volume (0.21 cm3/g) is surpassed only by that of pure silica Beta among the known pure silica polymorphs. The success of the ab initio structure solution from synchrotron powder diffraction data was greatly assisted by the absence of Al and Si−OH defect groups, which generates a very high degree of crystallographic order.