De-agglomeration of IZM-2 zeolite crystals by post-synthetic treatment

• A post-synthetic treatment is developed for the de-agglomeration of zeolite.
• Zeolite IZM-2 aggregates are de-agglomerated by the post treatment.
• The post-treated samples keep high crystallinity and similar framework composition.
• Hierarchical porosity is obtained in the post-treated samples.

Highly intergrown nanocrystals are commonly observed in zeolite samples, and the densely packed agglomerates may result in small secondary porosity, which restricts the advantage of hierarchical structures. In this work we take IZM-2 zeolite as an example to demonstrate a post-treatment method with diluted hydrofluoric acid solution, which de-agglomerates intergrown zeolite nanocrystals and improves the secondary porosity. The treated samples preserve high crystallinity, similar framework composition and distinctively higher external surface area compared to the agglomerated ones. The results show that this treatment is an effective method for de-agglomeration of intergrown nanocrystals without affecting the original framework.

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