Stacking disorders in zeolites and open-frameworks - structure elucidation and analysis by electron crystallography and X-ray diffraction

Intergrowth and stacking disorders are often found in minerals and synthetic zeolites and inorganic open-frameworks. Structure elucidation of stacking disorders in these materials have been difficult and structure solution of stacking disorders in unknown zeolites and open-frameworks has been challenging. There exist no standard methods for structure analysis of such disordered materials. In this review we present various stacking disorders and intergrowth in a number of representative zeolite families containing stacking disorders. These include zeolite beta, SSZ-26/SSZ-33, ITQ-39, ABC-6, ZSM-48, SSZ-31, UTD-1, faujasite FAU/EMT, pentasil ZSM-5/ZSM-11, ITQ-13/ITQ-34, ITQ-22/ITQ-38 etc. Stacking disorders in open-frameworks containing mixed coordinations, including titanosilicates ETS-10 and ETS-4, and the silicogermanate SU-JU-14 are also described. Various crystallographic methods used for solving disordered structures are summarized. The methods include powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), electron diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Examples of model building combined with simulations of PXRD and single crystal X-ray diffraction to verify the structure models are given.