Acceleration of Zeolite Crystallization: Current Status, Mechanisms, and Perspectives

Zeolites are important classes of crystalline materials and possess well-defined channels and cages with molecular dimensions. They have been extensively employed as heterogeneous catalysts and gas adsorbents due to their relatively large specific surface areas, high pore volumes, compositional flexibility, definite acidity, and hydrothermal stability. The zeolite synthesis normally undergoes high-temperature hydrothermal treatments with a relatively long crystallization time, which exhibits low synthesis efficiency and high energy consumption. Various strategies, e.g., modulation of the synthesis gel compositions, employment of special silica/aluminum sources, addition of seeds, fluoride, hydroxyl (·OH) free radical initiators, and organic additives, regulation of the crystallization conditions, development of new approaches, etc., have been developed to overcome these obstacles. And, these achievements make prominent contributions to the topic of acceleration of the zeolite crystallization and promote the fundamental understanding of the zeolite formation mechanism. However, there is a lack of the comprehensive summary and analysis on them. Herein, we provide an overview of the recent achievements, highlight the significant progress in the past decades on the developments of novel and remarkable strategies to accelerate the crystallization of zeolites, and basically divide them into three main types, i.e., chemical methods, physical methods, and the derived new approaches. The principles/acceleration mechanisms, effectiveness, versatility, and degree of reality for the corresponding approaches are thoroughly discussed and summarized. Finally, the rational design of the prospective strategies for the fast synthesis of zeolites is commented on and envisioned. The information gathered here is expected to provide solid guidance for developing a more effective route to improve the zeolite crystallization and obtain the functional zeolite-based materials with more shortened durations and lowered cost and further promote their applications.