The influence of microwave-assisted synthesis on nanocrystalline iron silicalite-1 particles

The influence of microwave synthesis conditions (time, temperature) and aging of clear solutions on the size, morphology, iron content, and aggregation of nanocrystalline particles were studied for iron silicalite-1 (FeS-1). The compound crystallized from a starting clear solution (10TEOS : 0.2FeCl(3) : 3TPAOH : 245H(2)O) using one-and two-step microwave-assisted hydrothermal syntheses. The smallest round FeS-1 intergrown crystals with a mean diameter of 300 nm composed of 40 nm particles were obtained by two-step microwave-assisted hydrothermal syntheses. The study of iron local structure in FeS-1 by using UV-Vis and Mossbauer spectroscopy revealed the presence of framework and extra-framework iron species. A reaction of N2O decomposition to N-2 and O-2 was used as a test to confirm higher catalytic activity of smaller crystallite size.