Letter abstract
Nature Materials 7, 381 - 385 (2008)
Published online: 13 April 2008 | doi:10.1038/nmat2169
Subject Categories: Catalytic materials | Porous materials | Characterisation and analytical techniques | Computation, modelling and theory
A zeolite family with chiral and achiral structures built from the same building layer
Liqiu Tang1, Lei Shi1,2, Charlotte Bonneau1,2, Junliang Sun1,2, Huijuan Yue1,2, Arto Ojuva1, Bao-Lin Lee1, Mikael Kritikos1,2, Robert G. Bell3, Zoltán Bacsik4, Janos Mink4,5 & Xiaodong Zou1,2
Porosity and chirality are two of the most important properties for materials in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Inorganic microporous materials such as zeolites have been widely used in ion-exchange, selective sorption/separation and catalytic processes. The pore size and shape in zeolites play important roles for specific applications1, 2, 3. Chiral inorganic microporous materials are particularly desirable with respect to their possible use in enantioselective sorption, separation and catalysis4. At present, among the 179 zeolite framework types reported, only three exhibit chiral frameworks5, 6, 7. Synthesizing enantiopure, porous tetrahedral framework structures represents a great challenge for chemists. Here, we report the silicogermanates SU-32 (polymorph A), SU-15 (polymorph B) (SU, Stockholm University) and a hypothetical polymorph C, all built by different stacking of a novel building layer. Whereas polymorphs B and C are achiral, each crystal of polymorph A exhibits only one hand and has an intrinsically chiral zeolite structure. SU-15 and SU-32 are thermally stable on calcination.
- Structural Chemistry, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Berzelii Centre EXSELENT on Porous Materials, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, UK
- Chemical Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, PO Box 77, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary
- Research Institute of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Pannonia, PO Box 158, H-8201 Veszprém, Hungary
Correspondence to: Xiaodong Zou1,2 e-mail: zou@struc.su.se
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Design for sievingNature News and Views (15 Aug 1996)
The riches of silica revealedNature News and Views (23 Aug 1984)
See all 3 matches for News And ViewsRESEARCH
A mesoporous germanium oxide with crystalline pore walls and its chiral derivativeNature Letters to Editor (29 Sep 2005)
The ITQ-37 mesoporous chiral zeoliteNature Letters to Editor (30 Apr 2009)
See all 17 matches for Research
