Building Boggsite

By employing phosphazenes to guide the formation of pores and channels, chemists in Spain have developed a novel synthesis of zeolites, including the rare mineral boggsite (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1196240). With a unique aluminosilicate structure composed of intersecting channels of 10- and 12-membered rings, boggsite is a promising catalyst for industrial reactions. But the material is found only in meager quantities in Oregon and Antarctica, and attempts to synthesize boggsite have proven unsuccessful, until now. A team led by Avelino Corma of Polytechnic University of Valencia found that phosphazenes—substituted phosphorus-nitrogen oligomers—make excellent organic structure-directing agents in the synthesis of zeolites, including boggsite. The compounds are easy to prepare and possess “a nearly unlimited synthesis flexibility that is based on building-block units,” the researchers say. The zeolite structure can be tuned by simply changing the phosphazenes’ substituents.