Catalytic Materials Catalytic materials provide the Davis group with a way to influence macroscopic physical behavior by studying and controlling atomic-scale properties. Zeolites are ideal catalytic materials for this research because they have nanostructure on the same scale as the molecules that react within their pores. Their nanostructure is a function of the conditions under whch they are created, and because of the molecular scale of the catalytic surfaces, their macroscopic properties are thus a function of those same conditions.
Zeolites are microporous crystalline oxides with a high surface to volume ratio.
H 2 O, but the Davis group is also interested in many zeolite-like materials that are also microporous and have important catalytic properties, such as aluminophosphates, zincosilicates, and titanosilicates. They were first used for organic synthesis in the 1960s for catalytic cracking of petroleum. ZSM-5, first synthesized in 1967, was applied to numerous refining and petrochemical processes with great success. Zeolites are actually natural products . Not all naturally occuring zeolites have been recreated in the laboratory, and conversely, many zeolites have been synthesized that do not occur in nature.