Development of nanocrystalline zeolite materials as environmental catalysts

IEC 86

Vicki H. Grassian, Sarah C. Larsen, Hassan Alwy, and Gonghu Li. Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
Environmental catalysis involves the use of catalysts to solve environmental problems, in areas such as emission abatement and environmentally benign synthesis. Many new catalysts and catalytic processes have been developed to meet the challenges posed by environmental concerns. Zeolites which are widely used in applications in separations and catalysis, have emerged as important materials for applications in environmental catalysis. The crystal size of zeolites formed during conventional synthesis range in size from 1,000 to 10,000 nm. However, for some applications it would be advantageous to employ much smaller nanometer-sized zeolite crystals in the range, 10-100 nm. Specific advantages to be gained by using zeolite nanostructures include facile adsorption and desorption, the ability to form dense films to facilitate separations applications and optical transparency. These advantages suggest that zeolite nanostructures will be superior materials for applications in heterogeneous environmental catalysis. The synthesis, characterization and chemistry of nanozeolite materials will be discussed. Comparisons to commercial zeolite materials will also be made.