Understanding Mechanism and Designing Strategies for Sustainable Synthesis of Zeolites: A Personal Story.

Abstract

Zeolites with intricate micropores have been widely studied for a long time as an important class of porous materials in different areas of industrial processes such as gas adsorption and separation, ion exchange, and shape-selective catalysis. However, their industrial syntheses are not sustainable, and normally require the presence of expensive organic templates and a large amount of solvents such as water. The presence of organic templates not only increases zeolite cost but also produces harmful gases during the removal of these templates by calcination, while the use of solvents significantly increases the amount of polluted water. This Personal Account briefly summarizes recent sustainable routes for the synthesis of zeolites in our group according to our understanding of the synthetic mechanism, and mainly focuses on the organotemplate-free synthesis of zeolites in the presence of zeolite seeds, the design of environmentally friendly templates, and solvent-free synthesis of zeolites.