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Sandeep Kumar, Zhuopeng Wang, R. Lee Penn and Michael Tsapatsis
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130 (51), 17284, 2 Dec 2008

In this communication, the authors present a cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) study on precursor sols prior to and during the early stages of MFI formation.  Cryo-TEM images with structural resolution were obtained and yielded new insights in MFI growth.  The importance of this study is two-fold.  First, the authors provide evidence supporting the recently proposed mechanism of evolution of nanoparticles followed by aggregative crystal growth while adding a new element.  The new element is the formation of predominantly amorphous aggregates before MFI crystallization and points to the importance of intra-aggregate rearrangements in nucleation and growth.  Second, the authors demonstrate that electron-beam sensitive materials such as zeolites can be imaged by cryo-TEM with structural resolution in their parent sols.  Similar studies for other zeolites under different conditions may reveal useful structural information for the understanding of hydrothermal nucleation and growth.