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Nucleation, Growth, and Robust Synthesis of SPP Zeolite: Effect of Ethanol, Sodium, and Potassium

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Abstract

Self-pillared pentasil (SPP) zeolite is a hierarchically-structured zeolite comprised of single-unit cell thick MFI nanosheets arranged in a “house of cards” structure. The nucleation and growth of SPP proceeds through three phases involving the evolution of precursor amorphous nanoparticles to MFI nanosheets and then rotational intergrowth of sheets to produce the SPP morphology. This paper expands upon an earlier report to extend understanding of nucleation and growth events throughout the entire preparation process, from hydrolysis of the silica source to high conversion to crystals. Common aspects with the extensively investigated clear-sol silicalite-1 system are identified. Evaporation of co-solvent ethanol was found to accelerate the crystallization significantly. Furthermore, robust synthesis of SPP with high density of well-developed single-unit cell domains has been achieved with addition of potassium and sodium to the synthesis sols.

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Acknowledgments

This article was based on work supported as part of the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI), an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0001004. Partial support was provided by the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Garrett R. Swindlehurst, Prashant Kumar, Dandan Xu, K. Andre Mkhoyan & Michael Tsapatsis

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Saeed M. Alhassan

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  1. Garrett R. Swindlehurst
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  2. Prashant Kumar
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  3. Dandan Xu
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  4. Saeed M. Alhassan
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  6. Michael Tsapatsis
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Correspondence to Michael Tsapatsis.

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Swindlehurst, G.R., Kumar, P., Xu, D. et al. Nucleation, Growth, and Robust Synthesis of SPP Zeolite: Effect of Ethanol, Sodium, and Potassium. Top Catal 58, 545–558 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-015-0396-7

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