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10/02/2012
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Researchers at Stockholm University and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain have discovered a new porous material that evinces unique properties for converting gasoline directly into diesel.
 The novel material, which has been named ITQ-39, belongs to the zeolite class of porous crystals. It is said to have a tremendously complex atomic structure that enables sufficiently small molecules to pass through it.
Professor Xiaodong Zou, who led the team, explained: "The new material has channels of varying size and shape in different directions. These variously shaped channels entail that a molecule that is transported inside the material can be limited in different ways, depending on the direction it travels."
ITQ-39 is thought to be the most complex zeolite material ever discovered. This, according to Prof Zou, is because unlike most other crystalline materials, it is not perfectly ordered.
"The material studied has a type of chaotic order," Zou said. "To be able to understand the material in the smallest detail requires both a model of how the atoms are arranged in the minimal ordered areas and a model of how these domains are then linked together into crystals."
ITQ-39 has so far proven to be an excellent catalytic converter for turning gasoline into diesel. The researchers are now looking for an industrial partner to scale up the process.
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Author
Laura Hopperton
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