Understanding the crystallisation processes leading to the formation of microporous aluminophosphates

摘要

Understanding how porous crystalline materials (e.g. zeolites and their related structures) are formed under hydrothermal conditions from a precursor gel, is of considerable fundamental interest since it could lead to a more rational approach towards the design and synthesis of new molecular sieves. A very powerful but relatively unexplored way of probing these processes is to perform real time, in situ crystallization studies. However the application of one or two techniques to study this process means that the characterization is often only partial. Therefore to overcome these limitations it is beneficial to perform either multiple in situ measurements using a variety of analytical techniques or to combine complementary techniques into one experimental setup; an approach, which often yields new insight. We show how both approaches have been used for a greater understanding into the self-assembly processes of microporous aluminophosphate (AlPO) materials.