Hierarchical meso-/micro-porous zeolites: new preparation methods and new applications in catalysis

Seminar abstract:

Synthetic zeolites, such as FAU Y and MFI ZSM-5 zeolites, are industrially important solid acid catalysts, especially in conventional petrochemical conversions such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) for producing gasoline range and gaseous (such as propylene) products. Zeolites are intrinsically microporous with pristine pores of < 1 nm. Although this is one of the important features of zeolites for various purposes such as shape/size selectivity, it imposes accessibility issues (or diffusion limitation in the framework) during application. Accordingly, various strategies are being developed and explored to enhance the rate of diffusion reactants/produces into/from the zeolites, such as post-synthesis modification methods to prepare hierarchical zeolites. In hierarchical zeolites, the pristine microporous zeolitic phase is connected by the secondary mesopores (2–50 nm), which facilitate molecular transport in the framework, as well as providing opportunity to achieve the rational design of multifunctional materials for catalysis. In this seminar, new post-synthetic strategies to prepare hierarchical zeolites efficiently will be discussed, and examples of rational catalyst design based on hierarchical zeolites will also be shared.

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