Facile synthesis of mesoporous aluminosilicates constructed with crystalline microporous frameworks

A hierarchically micro-mesoporous structured ZSM-5 zeolite has been synthesized from assembly of aluminosilcate species with a tetra-quaternary ammonium type surfactant, in which the surfactant acts as two-level structure-directing templates for generating micropores and mesopores simultaneously. The synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Al-27 magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric analysis and Quantum chemical calculation. X-ray diffraction as well as nitrogen sorption analyses indicated the dual-porosity of samples, one is from intra-crystalline micropores, and the other is from mesopores. Quantum chemical calculation results showed that the inner ammonium groups of surfactant had more higher molecular degrees of freedom for the zeolite-structure-directing function. Moreover, on the basis of the same concept, this method could be extended to investigate other hierarchically structured zeolites. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.