Hypothetical Uninodal Zeolite Structures: Comparison of AlPO4 and SiO2 Compositions Using Computer Simulation

Site-Specific Iron Substitution in STA-28, a Large Pore Aluminophosphate Zeotype Prepared by Using 1,10-Phenanthrolines as Framework-Bound Templates

An AlPO4 zeotype has been prepared using the aromatic diamine 1,10-phenanthroline and some of its methylated analogues as templates. In each case the two template N atoms bind to a specific framework Al site to expand its coordination to the unusual octahedral AlO4 N2 environment. Furthermore, using this framework-bound template, Fe atoms can be included selectively at this site in the framework by direct synthesis, as confirmed by annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy and Rietveld refinement. Calcination removes the organic molecules to give large pore framework solids, with BET surface areas up to 540 m2  g-1 and two perpendicular sets of channels that intersect to give pore space connected by 12-ring openings along all crystallographic directions.

Design of a "green" one-step catalytic production of epsilon-caprolactam (precursor of nylon-6)

The ever-increasing industrial demand for nylon-6 (polycaprolactam) necessitates the development of environmentally benign methods of producing its precursor, epsilon-caprolactam, from cyclohexanone. It is currently manufactured in two popular double-step processes, each of which uses highly aggressive reagents, and each generates substantial quantities of largely unwanted ammonium sulfate as by-product. Here we describe a viable laboratory-scale, single-step, solvent-free process of producing epsilon-caprolactam using a family of designed bifunctional, heterogeneous, nanoporous catalysts containing isolated acidic and redox sites, which smoothly convert cyclohexanone to epsilon-caprolactam with selectivities in the range 65-78% in air and ammonia at 80 degrees C. The catalysts are microporous (pore diameter 7.3 A) aluminophosphates in which small fractions of the Al(III)O4(5-) and P(V)O4(3-) tetrahedra constituting the 4-connected open framework are replaced by Co(III)PO4(5-) and Si(IV)O4(4-) tetrahedra, which become the loci of the redox and acidic centers, respectively. The catalysts may be further optimized, and already may be so designed as to generate selectivities of approximately 80% for the intermediate oxime, formed from NH2OH, which is produced in situ within the pore system. The advantages of such designed heterogeneous catalysts, and their application to a range of other chemical conversions, are also adumbrated.

Chemically feasible hypothetical crystalline networks

Our systematic enumeration of 4-connected crystalline networks (that is, networks in which each atom is connected to exactly four neighbours) used recent advances in tiling theory to evolve over 900 topologies. The results are relevant to the structures of zeolites and other silicates, aluminophosphates (AlPOs), oxides, nitrides, chalcogenides, halides, carbon networks, and even to polyhedral bubbles in foams. Given their importance as molecular sieves, ion exchangers, catalysts and catalyst supports, we have applied the results to microporous aluminosilicates and aluminophosphates (zeolites). Zeolite chemistry has to date produced 152 distinct types of structure. However, it was always clear that although many further structures can be synthesised, only a fraction of the mathematically generated networks would be chemically feasible (many are 'strained' frameworks requiring unrealistic bond lengths and bond angles), and that an effective 'filtering' process is needed to identify the most plausible frameworks. Here, we describe the use of computational chemistry methods to calculate optimized structural parameters, framework energies relative to alpha-quartz, volumes accessible to sorption, and X-ray diffraction patterns for systematically enumerated hypothetical 4-connected crystalline frameworks. Structures were treated as silica polymorphs with the empirical formula SiO(2), and their energies were minimized.