Surfactant-Templating of Zeolites: From Design to Application

Abstract

Surfactant-templating is one of the most effective and versatile synthetic strategies for the construction of well-defined porous architectures in solids. Though the principles of molecular self-assembly were disclosed in biological systems long since, the use of amphiphiles to generate porous architectures in inorganic matter has merely emerged at the very end of the 20th century. The present review proposes a voyage from the early developments of surfactant-templating for designing ordered mesoporous solids to the application of its principles for the generation of hierarchical zeolites. A thorough overview on the various strategies employing supramolecular chemistry to designing mesoporosity in zeolites is presented. The efficiency of the postsynthetic surfactant-templating approach in bridging the gap between zeolites and amorphous mesoporous molecular sieves is depicted through assessing their key properties, such as hydrothermal stability, texture and acidity. Finally, the impact of hierarchical zeolites in the industry will be highlighted through a review of the catalytic performance of mesostructured zeolites as components of FCC catalysts in various refineries.