2008 Annual Meeting

(763e) Zeolite Crystal Growth: A High-Resolution Cryo-TEM Study

Authors

Sandeep Kumar - Presenter, University of Minnesota
R. Lee Penn, University of Minnesota
Michael Tsapatsis, University of Minnesota
Investigating early stages of crystal growth in solution is of considerable fundamental and practical significance to various materials including zeolites. TPA-silicalite-1 (hereafter refer to as silicalite-1) is very often used as a model system. Here, we present a study of silicalite-1 crystallization by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). Our results show silicalite-1 crystal growth by aggregation of structurally diverse nanoparticles. The present study also demonstrates that zeolites can be imaged by cryo-TEM with structural resolution.