Assembly of oriented zeolite monolayers and thin films on polymeric surfaces via hydrogen bonding

The b-oriented monolayers of microsized silicalite-1 crystals have been manually assembled on glass plate supported poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), chitosan, and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin films via hydrogen bonding with much enhanced binding strength and satisfactory degrees of coverage and close packing. The exerted pressure and rubbing time in the manual assembly do not affect the binding strength of the silicalite-1 monolayer on the glass plate supported polymeric film. This manual assembly has been further applied to fabricate zeolite monolayers on commercially available Plexiglas surfaces and b-oriented multilayered films of silicalite-1 crystals on glass plates. The assembly method established in this study provides a feasible way to produce zeolite monolayers on polymer-modified solid substrates and Plexiglas and to fabricate zeolite-polymer composite membranes by means of the layer-by-layer technique.