Investigation of the Acid/Basic Sites of Zeolite Trough Some Catalysed Nucleophilic Reactions

Abstract

Zeolites, both natural and synthetic, are certainly some of the most versatile minerals for their applications. Since the 1940s, they have been used in the chemical industry as catalysts, adsorbents and ion exchanger extensively, and the development of their practical usage is expected to continue upon years. Their versatility is the result of the combination of peculiar and indispensable properties, each of which can be found in other material as a single property, but seldom all of them are found in combination. However, despite the success of their employment, the mechanisms of many important catalytic processes involving zeolites remained elusive. In particular, the comprehension of the structure–property relationships for emerging applications are highly required. In this perspective article we focus on the role of zeolites as solid acid-base catalysts. We go deeply into the structural properties of the LTA kind (Zeolite-Na A 4 Ångstrom) that was successfully employed as basic catalyst for several nucleophilic substitution reactions.