Mesoporous Y zeolite through ionic liquid based surfactant templating

•The rearrangement of zeolite Y using new ionic liquid based surfactants was investigated.•These surfactant show identical templating behaviour in the synthesis of siliceous MCM-41.•In the rearrangement these surfactants show a different templating behaviour.•Hierarchical porous zeolite Y is achieved with textural properties that depend on the nature of the surfactant used.

New surfactant molecules based on ionic liquids, such as [C16MIm]Cl and [C16MPy]Cl were employed in the rearrangement of Y zeolite to introduce mesopores of different morphologies. We evidence that the templating efficiency of these ionic liquids is identical as for the classically used ammonium based surfactant (CTAC) in the synthesis of siliceous MCM-41. Yet, their templating behavior differs importantly when used in the surfactant templating approach to produce mesoporous Y zeolite. This finding indicates that the micellization ability of these surfactants within the zeolite confined spaces differs to the one in solution and hence has a major impact on the textural properties of the final zeolite phase. Hierarchical porous zeolite Y with novel textural properties could be disclosed.

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