Synthesis of microporous faujasitic-like zincophosphates from reverse micelles

Abstract

Synthesis of an open pore microporous zincophosphate X (ZnPO-X) with the faujasite topology using reverse micelles as nanoreactors is reported here for the first time. Previous attempts with Aerosol OT (AOT), the most commonly used surfactant to make reverse micelles, led only to the formation of zincophosphate sodalite. Success in synthesizing ZnPO-X was realized using reverse micelles made with cationic surfactant dioctyldimethylammonium chloride (DODMAC). Infra-red studies show that the water structure in DODMAC reverse micelles resembles bulk water more so than AOT reverse micelles. Dynamic light scattering provides information on the crystal growth dynamics, which suggests that nucleation occurs in a small fraction of the reverse micelles followed by growth by incorporation of nutrients from non-nucleated micelles.