Synthesis of fluoro-organic structural determining agents for
Zeolite design
Lead Supervisor Dr Filip Wormald and Co-Supervisor Dr Rebecca Goss
Zeolites are microporous crystalline solids with well-defined structures. Generally
they contain silicon, aluminium and oxygen in their framework and cations, water
and/or other molecules within their pores. Because of their unique porous
properties, zeolites are used in a variety of applications. Major uses are
petrochemical cracking, ion-exchange (water softening and purification), and the
separation and removal of gases and solvents. Crucial to all these types of
applications is the unique microporous nature of zeolites, where the shape and size
of a particular pore system exerts a steric influence on the reaction, controlling the
access of reactants and products. This shape-selective property of zeolites is also
the basis for their use in molecular adsorption where the Zeolites ability to
preferentially adsorb certain molecules, while excluding others, has opened up a
wide range of molecular sieving applications. Zeolites can thus separate molecules
based on differences of size, shape and polarity.
Of major importance in the synthesis of the Zeolite and its final application area is
the organic structure directing agent (SDA) which templates the zeolite framework.
The following factors of SDA molecules are taken into consideration:
hydrophobicity, size, shape, charge distribution, and chemical stability. Therefore
the structure of the SDA allows for improvements in the design of zeolite
structures.
The aim of this project is the synthesis new fluorinated organic SDA’s. These will
then be used in the synthesis of zeolites. You will then investigate the structure of
the zeolites using techniques such as solid state NMR, X-ray crystallography, and
nitrogen absorption.
Zeolite synthesis
using SDA
Characterization
Solid state NMR
X-ray
Nitrogen
absorption