Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemical Science, 1(6), p. 480-485, 2015
DOI: 10.1039/c4sc02577f
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A multi-dimensional extra-large pore silicogermanate zeolite, named as ITQ-54, has been synthesised by in-situ decomposition of the N,N-dicyclohexylisoindolinium cation into the N-cyclohexylisoindolinium cation. Its structure was solved by 3D rotation electron diffraction (RED) from crystals of ca. 1 µm in size. The structure of ITQ-54 contains straight intersecting 20 × 14 × 12-ring channels along the three crystallographic axes and is one of the few zeolites with extra-large channels in more than one direction. ITQ-54 has a framework density of 11.1 T atoms/1000Å3, which is one of the lowest among the known zeolites. ITQ-54 was obtained together with GeO2 as an impurity. A heavy liquid separation method was developed and successfully applied to remove this impurity from the zeolite. ITQ-54 is stable up to 600 °C and shows permanent pores. The structure was further refined using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data for both as-made and calcined samples.