Intercalation chemistry of layered zeolite precursor IPC-1P

•UTL germanosilicate is a parent zeolite for large IPC-1 zeolite family.•Intercalation chemistry is an initial step to many modifications of 2D layered precursor.•Pillaring of expanded zeolite layers produces materials with various porous structure by design.

Lamellar zeolites like layered IPC-1 precursor, IPC-1P, offer unprecedented opportunities for creating diversity of more open zeolite structures prepared post-synthesis by expanding and modifying the interlamellar space. The present study investigates the intercalation chemistry of IPC-1P as a possible way to produce new expanded materials. Layered precursor IPC-1P obtained by ‘top-down’ modification of UTL germanosilicate was intercalated with different organic agents followed by stabilization and pillaring. Prepared materials were evaluated by X-ray powder diffraction, sorption of nitrogen and scanning electron microscopy. The d-spacing of intercalated precursor – IPC-1P (organic) – was in the range between 1.04 and 3.63 nm. Calcination of intercalated precursors provided mainly IPC-2 and IPC-4 zeolites. We demonstrate that stabilization of IPC-1P with organic species can produce new, more expanded structures than previously known IPC-2 zeolite. The pillaring of IPC-1P intercalated with the N-adamantyltrimethylammonium cations and N-alkyl-trimethylammonium cations (with octyl-, dodecyl- and hexadecyl-chains) leads to materials with different but controlled textural properties (BET area, pore size distribution and volume). Pillared IPC-1PI materials exhibit BET areas in the range of 497–1006 m2/g with pore sizes between micro- and small mesopores. The study shows that introducing of appropriate organics in between the layers of IPC-1P is the first step to produce new zeolitic architectures with variable textural properties, which are potential catalysts for transformation of bulky molecules.

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