3rd Feza School on Zeolites

Zeolites in the strict sense are highly porous crystalline aluminosilicatesthat comprise tetrahedrally-connected three dimensional frameworks andextra-framework charge balancing cations. The frameworks containpores that are able to take in molecules of up to 1 nm in size (dependingon the structure type) and the pore geometry can include cages and/orchannels, and be one-, two-, or three-dimensionally connected. Thechemical composition of both framework and extra-frameworkcomponents can extend very widely whilst retaining „zeolitic‟ character.This chemical variation can arise directly during synthesis, or post-synthetically: changes include exchange of both charge-balancing andframework cations, inclusion of organic groups into the framework andreplacement of framework oxygen. This chapter introduces the currentdiversity of framework structure types and also describes some of thestructural chemistry that zeolite structures undergo, emphasising that theproperties of zeolites, which make them so widely applicable, aredirectly related to both periodic and defect structures.