High pressure normally turns the porous minerals known as zeolites into a powdery, non-crystalline mess. Chemists have now shown that this is not always the case, by converting a zeolite into a stable new mineral using high-pressure compression.

Zeolites are often used as catalysts because their pores can trap a range of molecules. Depending on zeolite structure, the minerals can break up heavy oil, separate out gases or purify water.

In the hunt for fresh zeolite structures, Avelino Corma at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, and his co-workers used diamond anvils to compress the minerals. At 32,000 times atmospheric pressure, a type of silica zeolite transformed irreversibly into another porous structure, which was better at separating propene and propane than its parent form.

Angew. Chem. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201305230 (2013)