Zeolites are crystalline, microporous aluminosilicates that have been extensively used in heterogeneous catalysis, separations, and ion-exchange operations. It has long been understood that particle size and morphology play a central role in the successful application of zeolites. This dissertation reports on controlling the morphology of all-silica zeolite, silicalite-1, made in nonionic/ionic microemulsions under conventional synthesis conditions. Silicalite-1 materials formed in microemulsion-mediated syntheses possess different morphological properties as compared to samples grown using the same synthesis mixture in the absence of the microemulsion. The work presented here is a systematic study showing how parameters such as synthesis temperature, microemulsion composition, silica precursor, alkali content, presence of salt, and the surfactant identity impact the material properties, most notably crystal morphology. In the nonionic microemulsion mediated synthesis, the work demonstrates the possibility of using microemulsions to manipulate the shape and size of silicalite-1 materials, growing both spheres and high-aspect ratio platelets. In both cases these large particles are robust aggregates of small submicron particles. Based on the results presented, a mechanism is proposed illustrating the role of both the confined space presented by the microemulsion as well as the importance of the surfactant-silicate interactions leading to the formation of the large aggregates. In the cationic microemulsion mediated synthesis, it is concluded that the surfactant??silicate interactions are primarily responsible for the modulation of crystal morphology observed. The results indicate that surfactant adsorption on the growing crystal surface, not the confined space afforded by the microemulsion, is essential. The results suggest that this may be a versatile and useful approach to controlling zeolite crystal morphology and growth of crystals obtained from conventional high-silica zeolite synthesis procedures.

Zeolites are crystalline, microporous aluminosilicates that have been extensively used in heterogeneous catalysis, separations, and ion-exchange operations. It has long been understood that particle size and morphology play a central role in the successful application of zeolites. This dissertation reports on controlling the morphology of all-silica zeolite, silicalite-1, made in nonionic/ionic microemulsions under conventional synthesis conditions. Silicalite-1 materials formed in microemulsion-mediated syntheses possess different morphological properties as compared to samples grown using the same synthesis mixture in the absence of the microemulsion. The work presented here is a systematic study showing how parameters such as synthesis temperature, microemulsion composition, silica precursor, alkali content, presence of salt, and the surfactant identity impact the material properties, most notably crystal morphology. In the nonionic microemulsion mediated synthesis, the work demonstrates the possibility of using microemulsions to manipulate the shape and size of silicalite-1 materials, growing both spheres and high-aspect ratio platelets. In both cases these large particles are robust aggregates of small submicron particles. Based on the results presented, a mechanism is proposed illustrating the role of both the confined space presented by the microemulsion as well as the importance of the surfactant-silicate interactions leading to the formation of the large aggregates. In the cationic microemulsion mediated synthesis, it is concluded that the surfactant??silicate interactions are primarily responsible for the modulation of crystal morphology observed. The results indicate that surfactant adsorption on the growing crystal surface, not the confined space afforded by the microemulsion, is essential. The results suggest that this may be a versatile and useful approach to controlling zeolite crystal morphology and growth of crystals obtained from conventional high-silica zeolite synthesis procedures.

Understanding the mechanism of zeolite nucleation and crystallization will enable the zeolite science community to tune zeolite properties during synthesis in order to accommodate the purposes of various applications. Thus there has been considerable research effort in "deciphering" the mechanism by studying the growth course of tetrapropylammonium (TPA)-mediated silicalite-1 using several techniques, such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), small-angle X-ray/neutron scattering (SAXS/SANS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). While these studies have generated a more comprehensive picture on the silicalite-1 growth mechanism, the general application of the mechanism and how it could be applied to other zeolite systems have not been addressed. This work initially tried to apply the insights developed from the TPAsilicalite- 1 clear solution synthesis by investigating the nanoparticles formation and zeolite growth in several tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS)-organocation-water solutions heated at 368 K using SAXS. The results are in contrast to TEOS-TPAOH-water mixtures that rapidly form silicalite-1 at 368 K. These results imply that the developed TPA-silicalite-1 nucleation and crystallization mechanism is not universally applicable to other zeolite systems and TPA-silicalite-1 itself could be a special case. With this in mind, the next goal of this work uses in situ SAXS to revisit silicalite-1 growth kinetics prepared by using several TPA-mimic organocations and some asymmetric geometry organocations. The results clearly show the TPA cation is an extraordinarily efficient structure-directing agent (SDA) due to its moderate hydrophobicity and perfect symmetric geometry. Any perturbation of the hydrophobicity and symmetry of SDA leads to a deterioration of zeolite growth. This work further investigates the influences of alcohol identity and content on silicalite-1 growth from clear solutions at 368 K using in situ SAXS. Several tetraalkyl orthosilicates (Si(OR)4, R = Me, Pr, and Bu) are used as the alternative silica sources to TEOS in synthesizing silicalite-1. Increasing the alcohol identity hydrophobicity or lowering the alcohol content enhances silicalite-1 growth kinetics. This implies that the alcohol identity and content do affect the strength of 1) hydrophobic hydration of the SDA and 2) the water-alcohol interaction, through changing the efficiency of the interchanges between clathrated water molecules and solvated silicate species.

Zeolite membranes are considered to be a promising alternative to polymeric membranes and they have the potential to separate gases under harsh conditions. Silicalite-1 membranes in particular are easy to prepare and suitable for several industrial applications. In this research project, silicalite-1/ceramic composite membranes were prepared using the pore plugging hydrothermal synthesis method and supports with zirconium oxide and/or titanium oxide as active layers. The effect of the support’s pore size on the morphology and permeation performance of the prepared membranes was investigated using five supports with different active layer pore sizes in the range of 0.14 – 1.4 m. The prepared membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron diffraction spectrometer (EDS), single gas and binary gas mixtures permeation tests. The results confirmed the presence of a typical silicalite-1 zeolite structure with a high internal crystalline order grown inside the pores of the active layer of the supports, with a dense film covering most of the supports active layers. Silicalite-1 crystals in the prepared membranes were preferably oriented with either a- or b-axes perpendicular to the support surface. Single gas permeation results illustrated that the observed permeances were not directly related to the kinetic diameter of permeants. Instead, the transport of the studied gases through the prepared membranes occurred by adsorption followed by surface diffusion mechanism. Binary gas tests performed with CO2 and N2 mixtures showed that the prepared membranes were selective and very permeable with CO2/N2 permselectivities up to 30 and a CO2 permeances in the order of 10-6 mol m-2 Pa-1 s-1. A model was developed, based on Maxwell−Stefan equations and Extended Langmuir adsorption isotherm, to describe the transport of binary CO2 and N2 mixtures through the prepared silicalite-1 membranes. The model results showed that the exchange diffusivities (D12 and D21) were less dependent on the feed pressure and feed composition compared to the permeances and the permselectivities. Hence, they are more appropriate to characterize the intrinsic transport properties of the prepared silicalite-1 membranes.

Zeolite membranes are considered to be a promising alternative to polymeric membranes and they have the potential to separate gases under harsh conditions. Silicalite-1 membranes in particular are easy to prepare and suitable for several industrial applications. In this research project, silicalite-1/ceramic composite membranes were prepared using the pore plugging hydrothermal synthesis method and supports with zirconium oxide and/or titanium oxide as active layers. The effect of the support’s pore size on the morphology and permeation performance of the prepared membranes was investigated using five supports with different active layer pore sizes in the range of 0.14 – 1.4 m. The prepared membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron diffraction spectrometer (EDS), single gas and binary gas mixtures permeation tests. The results confirmed the presence of a typical silicalite-1 zeolite structure with a high internal crystalline order grown inside the pores of the active layer of the supports, with a dense film covering most of the supports active layers. Silicalite-1 crystals in the prepared membranes were preferably oriented with either a- or b-axes perpendicular to the support surface. Single gas permeation results illustrated that the observed permeances were not directly related to the kinetic diameter of permeants. Instead, the transport of the studied gases through the prepared membranes occurred by adsorption followed by surface diffusion mechanism. Binary gas tests performed with CO2 and N2 mixtures showed that the prepared membranes were selective and very permeable with CO2/N2 permselectivities up to 30 and a CO2 permeances in the order of 10-6 mol m-2 Pa-1 s-1. A model was developed, based on Maxwell−Stefan equations and Extended Langmuir adsorption isotherm, to describe the transport of binary CO2 and N2 mixtures through the prepared silicalite-1 membranes. The model results showed that the exchange diffusivities (D12 and D21) were less dependent on the feed pressure and feed composition compared to the permeances and the permselectivities. Hence, they are more appropriate to characterize the intrinsic transport properties of the prepared silicalite-1 membranes.

No description available.

Les matériaux « coeur-coquille » composés d’une nanoparticule métallique encapsulée à l'intérieur de coquilles inorganiques (oxydes, carbone …) attirent de plus en plus l'attention par leurs propriétés particulières, en particulier dans le domaine de la catalyse. Les particules métalliques sont protégées par la coquille, qui empêche entre autres le frittage et la croissance des particules à haute température. Cependant, les coquilles sont généralement méso à macroporeuses et elles ne peuvent pas jouer le rôle de tamis moléculaire pour les molécules de taille nanométrique. En revanche, les zéolithes sont des solides cristallins microporeux dont les pores bien définis permettent une forte discrimination des réactifs basée sur la taille, la forme ou leur coefficient de diffusion. L’objectif de cette thèse visait à la synthèse de catalyseurs de type coeur-coquille dans lesquels la coquille est une zéolite microporeuse de structure MFI (silicalite-1 et ZSM-5), le coeur étant soit une particule de métal noble (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd), soit des alliages de ces différents métaux, soit enfin un métal de transition (Co, Ni, Cu). Ces catalyseurs ont été appliqués dans des réactions d'hydrogénation sélective (aromatiques substitués) et l'oxydation sélective de CO en présence d'hydrocarbures. Nous avons ainsi montré que la coquille zéolithique, tout en protégeant les particules du frittage, modifie la sélectivité des réactions en interdisant aux réactifs volumineux d’atteindre les sites catalytiques / Nanostructured yolk-shell materials, which consist of metal nanoparticle cores encapsulated inside hollow shells, attract more and more attention in material science and catalyst applications during the last two decades. Metal particles are usually highly mono-dispersed in size and isolated from each other by the shell, which prevents growth by sintering at high temperature. Because they are generally made of meso/macroporous oxides or amorphous carbon, shells cannot carry out molecular sieve-type separation of molecules at the nanometric scale. The aim of the present thesis was to synthesize yolk-shell catalyst with microporous zeolite shells (silicalite-1 and ZSM-5), containing noble (Au, Pt, Pd) transition (Co, Ni, Cu) and alloy metal nanoparticles. Zeolites are crystalline microporous solids with well-defined pores capable of discriminating nanometric reactants on the basis of size, shape and diffusion rate. Zeolite-based yolk-shell catalysts have been applied in selective hydrogenation (toluene and mesitylene) and oxidation (CO) reactions in the presence of hydrocarbons. Zeolite shells not only plaid a key role as membranes, thus changing selectivities as compared to conventional supported catalysts, but they also protected metal nanoparticles from sintering under reaction conditions

Zeolite membranes have great potential in gas separation applications because of their unique selective properties. The main challenge is in synthesizing defect-free zeolite membranes. In this study, we synthesized silicalite-1 zeolite membranes on ceramic supports composed of Al2O3 and TiO2 using the pore-plugging method. We investigated the effect of the fill-level in the autoclave during the synthesis on the membrane performance. In particular, we were interested in determining the conditions at which the defects' contribution to the total transport is minimized. We adopted and further developed the approach proposed by Carter (2019) to quantify the permeance contribution through defects. Comparing the membrane performance before and after calcination, we proposed several modifications to the original analysis of Carter (2019). Knowing the defect transport contribution, we determined the corrected diffusivity, an intrinsic property of zeolite crystals at a given temperature, of several adsorbed gases on silicalite-1 crystals. The defect's contribution decreased as the autoclave fill-level increased from 94 to 98%. A further increase in the autoclave fill-level introduced more defects and caused the autoclave lid to rupture. Despite the differences in the membranes' performance arising from the autoclave fill-level, the corrected diffusivities of CO2, CH4, and N2 in silicalite-1 showed minimal variation from membrane to membrane. This proves the validity of the proposed characterization method. Moreover, the reported corrected diffusivities are comparable to the literature's values, found using other characterization methods. However, none of the previously used methods is as simple and straightforward as the one we further developed in this study.

Zeolite nucleation and growth is a complex problem that has been widely investigated but still not completely understood. However, a full understanding of this process is required in order to develop predictive models for the rational design and control of the zeolite properties. The primary objective of this dissertation is to determine the strength of organicinorganic interactions (i.e., the adsorption Gibbs energy) in transparent synthesis mixtures using PFG NMR spectroscopy, in order to provide more information for a better understanding of zeolite nucleation and growth. Three main tasks were conducted in this work. The first was an investigation of the organocation role in precursor mixtures of silicalite-1, where the Gibbs energy of the organocation adsorption on the silica particles was determined at 25 degrees C. The findings showed that small changes in the adsorption Gibbs energy resulting from the differences in the molecular structure of the organocations lead to large changes in both the stability of the precursor particles and the rate of silicalite-1 formation. The second was an in situ PFG NMR investigation of silicalite-1 synthesis mixtures, where the adsorption Gibbs energy was determined at 25 degrees C and 70 degrees C, and the time evolution of silicalite-1 was monitored at synthesis conditions. The findings showed similar adsorption Gibbs energies at 25 degrees C and 70 degrees C. Also, a maximum in the organocation diffusion coefficients was observed during the time evolution of silicalite-1, which was associated with the exothermicendothermic transition occurring during the synthesis. The third was a systematic investigation of silicalite-1 precursor mixtures with varying degrees of dilution, where the effect of the composition of the mixtures on their conductivity, pH and particle size distribution (PSD) was studied. The results showed that conductivity, pH, and PSD are strongly affected by the mixture composition. The main conclusion of this research is that the strength of the organic-inorganic interactions in transparent synthesis mixtures can be determined from experimental data of the organocation self-diffusion coefficients obtained with PFG NMR spectroscopy. The outcome information of this research should contribute to the development of a more detailed molecular-level description of the zeolite nucleation and growth, which is expected to allow the emergence of a new generation of materials by design.

Cette étude se situe dans le cadre des recherches menées par le CEAEA sur la production massive d'hydrogène, sans émission de gaz à effet de serre, via un cycle thermo-chimique de décomposition de l'eau couplé à une source de chaleur à haute température d'origine nucléaire. Dans le cas particulier du cycle dit« Iode-Soufre», on doit extraire H2 à partir d'un mélange H2/HI/H20 très corrosif, opération pour laquelle des procédés membranaires ont été proposés. L'objectif de ce travail est le développement de membranes zéolithiques de type MFI susceptibles d'être utilisées dans ce contexte. Nous présentons les différents matériaux utilisés, la méthodologie de synthèse de couches minces de Silicalite-1 et de ZSM-5 synthétisée sans structurant organique, les techniques de caractérisation des membranes. Une étude cinétique nous a permis d'optimiser et de contrôler les conditions d'obtention de ces couches minces déposées sur des substrats tubulaires en Ti02 et plans en Al2O3-α. De nombreuses expériences de perméation ont été réalisées, pour des gaz simples (H2, He, Ar, N 2, C02, SF6) et des mélanges gazeux (H2/H20/Ar) et (H2/H20/HI/Ar). Les effets de la température, de la pression amont, de l'épaisseur et de la longueur de la couche mince ainsi que du gaz vecteur ont été étudiés en détail. Il apparaît que la présence de molécules d'H20 dans le système joue un rôle prépondérant sur la perméation des autres molécules. / In the general context of massive and "carbon free" hydrogen production studies, the aim of this work was the development of zeolitic MFI membranes for hydrogen extraction and separation. The methodology of synthesis, the membranes characterization techniques as well as the permeation experimental setup are presented. Optimization and control of the elaboration of Ti02 supported Silicalite-1 and template free ZSM-5 membranes have been reached. Details of the full kinetic study that we performed are given. Numerous permeation experiments, involving pure gas (H2, He, Ar, N2, C02, SF6) and mixtures (H2/H20/Ar) and (H2/H 20/HI/Ar) have been carried on. The effects of temperature, feed pressure, thickness and length of the membranes, as well as the role of the sweeping gas have been emphasized. In the case of gas mixtures, the presence of H20 molecules appears to be a predominant factor.