Synthesis and structure of an ultrathin aluminosilicate film

AEI 41

Dario J. Stacchiola, dstacchi@fhi-berlin.mpg.de, S Kaya, J Weissenrieder, Shamil K. Shaikhutdinov, shaikhutdinov@fhi-berlin.mpg.de, and Hans-Joachim Freund. Chemical Physics Department, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195, Berlin, Germany
Generally used in the industry as bulk catalysts, adsorbents or ion exchangers, the synthesis of thin film zeolites is currently actively pursued for the preparation of membranes, chemical sensors and optoelectronic devices. In this work, we report on the preparation of well-ordered, ultra-thin silica and aluminosilicate films on a metal substrate. The atomic structure has been determined by a combination of high-resolution experimental results from scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), infrared (IRAS) and photoelectron (PES) spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation and density functional theory (DFT). At low Al:Si ratio, the aluminosilicate films are formed by replacing Si atoms by Al in the silica film, and basically consist of a 2D network of corner sharing [SiO4] and [AlO3] units