Adsorptive characterization and use in liquid phase separation of thin zeolite layers.

aim: All material imporvements as indicated above require thin layers of zeolite and the major aim of this project is then also the fundamental study of thin films of zeolite nano-crystals: development of characterization techniques for thin films and evaluation in adsorption or membrane separations and/or catalysis. As test system, we will use the MFI type of zeolite, considering the large number of methods for synthesis, the available data and experience with the partners and the possible important applications. We intend to develop adsorption based methods for characterization: measurement of adsorption aquilibrium and kinetics in gas and liquid phase, a fast test for determining the success of a synthesis, determination of pore volume and size, comparison with axisting large databases for conventional zeolite crystals. Very few studies have been performed of the behaviour of molecules inside the zeolite films from the liquid phase, and these few studies have a unique topology to study adsorption with in-situ spectroscopy such as Raman. This complementary technique has been shown to give insight on molecular interactions in the framework and on its structure. We will use to gain insight in molecular ordening effects we have experimentally measured and found by molecular modelling for hydrocarbon mixtures. Furthermore, we wish to test the use of zeolite coated fibers, monoliths or prticles for the use in chromatography, and develop adequate models for their description.