Potential uses of natural zeolites for the development of new materials: short review

Abstract

Zeolites stand apart among the many families of porous materials. Due to their structure, they have a number of important practical properties such as a high adsorption capacity and the ability to cation exchange. However, the main feature distinguishing them from other porous bodies and inherent only for zeolites is the ordering of the pores in their size, orientation, and mutual locations. Pore diameters for the crystalline structures of various zeolites may vary from 0.25 to about 15 nanometers. The crystalline arrangement of these pores in space converts zeolites in the naturally existing nanostructured materials, possessing the unique property to present ordered location of stabilized nanoparticles.