Facile Preparation of Hydrophobic Colloidal MFI and CHA Crystals and Oriented Ultrathin Films

Abstract We report novel routes for synthesis of defect‐free, hydrophobic and monodispersed 10 nm (5 unit cells) thick MFI crystals and 100 nm CHA crystals. The crystals are obtained in high yield and display very high 1‐butanol adsorption from aqueous solution. These crystals are assembled in monolayers for the growth of ultrathin and uniformly oriented films with thicknesses of 36 nm and 330 nm, respectively, using a synthesis gel in the form of a powder. This method is very simple and may open up for industrial preparation of materials with improved performances.