Nonaqueous Fluoride/Chloride Anion-Promoted Delamination of Layered Zeolite Precursors: Synthesis and Characterization of UCB-2

The delamination of layered zeolite precursor PREFER is demonstrated under mild nonaqueous conditions using a mixture of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, tetrabutylammonium fluoride, and tetrabutylammonium chloride in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent. The delamination proceeds through a swollen material intermediate which is characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Subsequent addition of concentrated HCl at room temperature leads to synthesis of UCB-2 via delamination of the swollen PREFER material and is characterized using PXRD, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and argon gas physisorption, which shows lack of microporosity in UCB-2. (29)Si magic angle sinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy indicates lack of amorphization during delamination, as indicated by the entire absence of Q(2) resonances, and (27)Al MAS NMR spectroscopy shows exclusively tetrahedral aluminum in the framework following delamination. The delamination process requires both chloride and fluoride anions and is sensitive to solvent, working well in DMF. Experiments aimed at synthesizing UCB-2 using aqueous conditions previously used for UCB-1 synthesis leads to partial swelling and lack of delamination upon acidification. A similar lack of delamination is observed upon attempting synthesis of UCB-1 under conditions used for UCB-2 synthesis. The delamination of PREFER is reversible between delaminated and swollen states in the following manner. Treatment of as-made UCB-2 with the same reagents as used here for the swelling of PREFER causes the delaminated UCB-2 material to revert back to swollen PREFER. This causes the delaminated UCB-2 material to revert back to swollen PREFER. Altogether, these results highlight delamination as the reverse of zeolite synthesis and demonstrate the crucial role of noncovalent self-assembly involving the zeolitic framework and cations/anions/structure-directing agent and solvent during the delamination process.