Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TODENZE (OPENING THE PATHWAY TOWARDS DENDRITIC ZEOLITES)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-08-31
A great interest has arisen in recent years in synthetic materials exhibiting a dendritic 3D superstructure due to their outstanding and singular properties and the high number of potential applications in a variety of relevant fields. Starting from silica nanoparticles, dendritic structures have now been extended to other compositions. However, the development of dendritic zeolites has remained elusive despite their huge scientific and industrial relevance. Being considered mature materials, the reality is that the scientific publications on zeolites are constantly and rapidly growing.
In this context, TODENZE (opening the pathway TOwards DENdritic ZEolites) has been envisioned as a very ambitious and high-risk project aimed at developing strategies for synthesizing zeolites with dendritic nano-architectures. The achievement of this goal is expected to have a strong impact in the scientific community working with porous solids and also in many other fields and topics in which dendritic zeolites could exhibit quite better performance than state-of-the-art zeolitic materials. In particular, their expected outstanding accessibility should induce a strong enhance in the performance of dendritic zeolites when applied as catalysts in a large variety of reactions such as the production of sustainable fuels and fine chemicals or the valorization of wastes/residues.
The TODENZE project has been organized according to 4 major objectives concerning the concept of dendritic zeolites: i) Unveiling the synthesis mechanism; ii) Expanding and generalizing the concept, iii) Assessing the properties, and iv) Finding relevant applications. In particular, their use as catalysts for the production of both advanced biofuels and bio-based chemicals and as nanocarriers for combined drug/gene therapy is being explored.
Achievement of the TODENZE goals will provide remarkable benefits and high gains in strategic areas such as environment, sustainable energy, circular economy and health.
In this context, TODENZE (opening the pathway TOwards DENdritic ZEolites) has been envisioned as a very ambitious and high-risk project aimed at developing strategies for synthesizing zeolites with dendritic nano-architectures. The achievement of this goal is expected to have a strong impact in the scientific community working with porous solids and also in many other fields and topics in which dendritic zeolites could exhibit quite better performance than state-of-the-art zeolitic materials. In particular, their expected outstanding accessibility should induce a strong enhance in the performance of dendritic zeolites when applied as catalysts in a large variety of reactions such as the production of sustainable fuels and fine chemicals or the valorization of wastes/residues.
The TODENZE project has been organized according to 4 major objectives concerning the concept of dendritic zeolites: i) Unveiling the synthesis mechanism; ii) Expanding and generalizing the concept, iii) Assessing the properties, and iv) Finding relevant applications. In particular, their use as catalysts for the production of both advanced biofuels and bio-based chemicals and as nanocarriers for combined drug/gene therapy is being explored.
Achievement of the TODENZE goals will provide remarkable benefits and high gains in strategic areas such as environment, sustainable energy, circular economy and health.
During the first half of the TODENZE project, a great part of the work has been focused on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic applications of ZSM-5 zeolite exhibiting a marked dendritic nano-architecture. In this way, it must be highlighted that ZSM-5 is one of the most relevant zeolites so far known from both scientific and technological points of view. Thus, more than 19,300 scientific articles have been already published including “ZSM-5” in the tittle/abstract/keywords, many of them dealing with the application of this material as a catalyst or support in a large variety of sectors, such as oil refining, petrochemistry, energy, environment, sensors, medicine, etc. This provides an idea of the huge impact that could be derived from the development of ZSM-5 zeolite showing a set of singular properties due to the presence of a dendritic nano-architecture.
The successful synthesis of dendritic ZSM-5 zeolite in the TODENZE project has been achieved by the combination of two strategies applied sequentially: i) preparation of protozeolitic nanounits and ii) functionalization of the latter with an amphiphilic organosilane, followed by crystallization under hydrothermal conditions. Preliminary investigations on the synthesis mechanism indicate that the formation of dendritic ZSM-5 occurs through a micelle-template pathway. The materials so obtained consist of a branched and radial arrangement of zeolite nanounits (about 5 nm size), which provides it with exceptional accessibility affording the processing of bulky molecules and the supporting of a variety of metal phases with high dispersion to develop multifunctional materials with advanced properties. In particular, dendritic ZSM-5 zeolites have shown so far to be very effective catalysts for the conversion of biomass-derived compounds into both sustainable aviation fuels precursors and bio-based chemicals, as well as in catalytic pyrolysis of plastics and the production of clean hydrogen by catalytic methane decomposition.
Likewise, the results obtained so far in the TODENZE project have shown the feasibility of extending this synthesis strategy to other zeolite structures different from the MFI one, as well as framework compositions beyond conventional aluminosilicate-based zeolites. The performance of these materials in a variety of applications, mainly as catalysts and nanocarriers, is being explored at present, hence it is expected these results will be the subject of several scientific articles in short.
The successful synthesis of dendritic ZSM-5 zeolite in the TODENZE project has been achieved by the combination of two strategies applied sequentially: i) preparation of protozeolitic nanounits and ii) functionalization of the latter with an amphiphilic organosilane, followed by crystallization under hydrothermal conditions. Preliminary investigations on the synthesis mechanism indicate that the formation of dendritic ZSM-5 occurs through a micelle-template pathway. The materials so obtained consist of a branched and radial arrangement of zeolite nanounits (about 5 nm size), which provides it with exceptional accessibility affording the processing of bulky molecules and the supporting of a variety of metal phases with high dispersion to develop multifunctional materials with advanced properties. In particular, dendritic ZSM-5 zeolites have shown so far to be very effective catalysts for the conversion of biomass-derived compounds into both sustainable aviation fuels precursors and bio-based chemicals, as well as in catalytic pyrolysis of plastics and the production of clean hydrogen by catalytic methane decomposition.
Likewise, the results obtained so far in the TODENZE project have shown the feasibility of extending this synthesis strategy to other zeolite structures different from the MFI one, as well as framework compositions beyond conventional aluminosilicate-based zeolites. The performance of these materials in a variety of applications, mainly as catalysts and nanocarriers, is being explored at present, hence it is expected these results will be the subject of several scientific articles in short.
The activities to be performed in the second part of the TODENZE project, going beyond the state of the art, will be as follows:
i) Complete the study of the development of zeolites with dendritic nano-architectures to establish those structures, in addition to those already achieved, in which the TODENZE project synthesis strategy is successful.
ii) Get additional insights about the effect of the dendritic nano-architecture on the zeolite properties with a particular focus on how it improves their accessibility for hosting other components and active phases, thus affording the development of multifunctional and hybrid materials.
iii) Widen the catalytic applications of the developed dendritic zeolites mainly in the fields of biomass conversion and valorization of residues/wastes.
iv) Investigate, following the TODENZE planning, the performance of dendritic zeolites as nanocarriers for combined drug/gene therapy.
v) Explore additional and novel applications in which the exceptional accessibility of dendritic zeolites could play an essential role. To accomplish this type of activities it will be necessary to increase the collaborations with other research groups so they can test the materials developed in the TODENZE project.
i) Complete the study of the development of zeolites with dendritic nano-architectures to establish those structures, in addition to those already achieved, in which the TODENZE project synthesis strategy is successful.
ii) Get additional insights about the effect of the dendritic nano-architecture on the zeolite properties with a particular focus on how it improves their accessibility for hosting other components and active phases, thus affording the development of multifunctional and hybrid materials.
iii) Widen the catalytic applications of the developed dendritic zeolites mainly in the fields of biomass conversion and valorization of residues/wastes.
iv) Investigate, following the TODENZE planning, the performance of dendritic zeolites as nanocarriers for combined drug/gene therapy.
v) Explore additional and novel applications in which the exceptional accessibility of dendritic zeolites could play an essential role. To accomplish this type of activities it will be necessary to increase the collaborations with other research groups so they can test the materials developed in the TODENZE project.