Structure of the microporous titanosilicate ETS-10

Abstract

INORGANIC microporous framework solids such as zeolites are of considerable technological importance as shape-selective catalysts, ion-exchange materials and molecular sieves¹. Most microporous materials known until recently were silicates, aluminosilicates¹ or aluminophosphates^2–4, all of which contain tetrahedrally coordinated metal atoms. In 1989, a family of microporous titanosilicates (generically denoted ETS) was discovered in which the metal atoms (Ti⁴⁺) are octahedrally coordinated^5–8. A full understanding of the potential of any microporous solid to act as a molecular sieve and selective catalyst, and of the nature of the catalytic centres, requires that its structure be known. But that of the ETS materials has proved elusive because of the considerable degree of disorder that they contain. Using a combination of high-resolution electron microscopy, electron and powder X-ray diffraction, solid-state NMR, molecular modelling and chemical analysis, we have now been able to solve the structure of a prominent member of this family, ETS-10. This structure comprises corner-sharing SiO₄ tetrahedra and TiO₆ octahedra linked through bridging oxygen atoms. The pore system contains 12-membered rings and displays a considerable degree of disorder. Many ordered variants of ETS-10 exist, some of which are chiral.