Reliable fabrication of preferentially b-Oriented silicalite-1 monolayers on various substrates using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique

Langmuir-Blodgett (L-B) technique was used to fabricate silicalite-1 monolayers on porous alpha-Al2O3 disk, glass plate, glass capillary tube and copper wire. Experimental investigations indicated that the proper transfer surface pressure was about 50 mN m(-1) for 1.6 mu m-sized silicalite-1 crystals, while sec-butanol helped by the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide is an appropriate dispersion medium compared with methanol, iso-propanol and n-butanol. The highly b-oriented silicalite-1 monolayer could be manufactured on flat and curved surfaces with satisfactory DOC and DCP using the L-B technique. This simple and reliable method should be of great interest for developing novel zeolite films and membranes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.