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At bast three major themes are helping to drive polymer synthesis and use of polymers today. These involve synthesis and assembling on an individual scale (nano-level); synthesis in confined spaces (selected inorganic zeolites and biological syntheses); and single-site catalysis (both selected biological and synthetic polymer synthesis). Superimposed on this is the applications aspects including
the human genome/biomedical, electronic/communications, etc.

Zeolites include a whole group of aluminosilicates with an approximate formula of SiAlOo.

With respect to the type of bonding, zeolites can be divided into three groups. The natrolite group (mesolite, thomsonite, edingtonite, natrolite) consists of structures built up from the rings of four
SiAlO4 tetrahedral groups linked together into chains with fewer linkages between the chains so that a cleavage along the chain direction is preferred. These materials generally have a fibrous character. In the heulandite group (stilbite, epistilbite, and heulandite), the SiAlOo tetrahedra form sheets of six-membered rings with few linkages between the sheets. These materials are mica-like in behavior. The third group, the so-called framework zeolites, has the density of bonding similar in all three directions. This group includes most of the zeolites mentioned below. Framework zeolites can be described as aluminosilicates composed of tetrahedra linked by the sharing of oxygen atoms into rings and cages that can accommodate water molecules, metallic icns, as well as selected organic molecules. While there are a variety of structures, the framework zeolites can be briefly described as having an open arrangement of corner-sharing tetrahedra where the SiO. units are partially replaced by AlO' units in which there are enough cations present to be neutral. There are well over 100 different synthetic and natural framework zeolites known today with more being found. Magic-angle NMR indicaGs that there are five distinct zeolite groups where n = O-4 for Ai(AiO),(SiO)4-,. The open structures give materials with lower densities (on the order of 2.0-2.2glml-), as expected, than similar materials with closed structures such as feldspar (density

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Molecular sieves was the name first given to framework zeolites dehydrated by heating in vacuum to about 350"C because of their ability to capture and remove water and certain other species. .l " TMay, other materials, such as microporous silicas and aluminum phosphate, are also employed as molecularsieves. Syntheses that occur within confined spaces typically give products with a specificity that is not available by other rnodes. The specificity may be general such as in the case of the synthesis of lignin in plants where the synthesis between plant layers produces a largely two-dimensional material with only an average structure. It may be highly selective to not totally selective as in the case of zeolites and hollow nanofibers. Or it may be essentially totally selective as in the case of many of the biologically important proteins and nucleic acids where both spacial and electronic interactions \ act to give a highly "preordained" structure. * ) Zeotites and related ordered clay-associated materials have been suggested to be involved in the initial primeval synthesis of basic elements of life. They are also being involved in the synthesis of a number of polymeric and nonpolymeric materials. Zeolites come in a variety of forms with differing shapes and sizes with researchers associating the particular size and shape with a particular desired synthesis. This is somewhat akin to the considerations that are made in effectively employing crown phase transfer agents and related materials. Zeolites have been employed in the preferential synthesis of optically active sites and in determining the particular products formed from certain reactions. In looking at the products formed rt

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