Catalysis Letters, Vol.145, No.1, 193-213, 2015
Hierarchically Nanoporous Zeolites and Their Heterogeneous Catalysis: Current Status and Future Perspectives
The research field of hierarchically nanoporous zeolites has been growing at an enormous pace over the past decades. Hierarchically nanoporous zeolites have versatile structural properties such as high surface area and large pore volume that can alleviate diffusional limitations of conventional zeolites with solely microporous framework. In this review, various synthesis strategies to hierarchically nanoporous zeolites and their structural advantages in catalytic reactions will be reviewed. In the first part, many novel synthetic approaches for hierarchically nanoporous zeolites such as post-demetallation, soft-templating, hard-templating, and dual-pore-generating surfactant-directed methods will be introduced. In the second part, catalytic applications of hierarchically nanoporous zeolites on various chemical reactions involving isomerization, cracking, alkylation and oxidation will be discussed. The present comprehensive review will provide future opportunities and perspectives on the research of hierarchically nanoporous zeolites including their applications to catalytic reactions.