Li Jian's group at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, has recently achieved advances in the discovery of novel zeolitic catalysts. They addressed the long‐standing challenge of synthesizing stable, nanoscale zeolites with extra-large pores—materials highly sought for processing bulky molecules but notoriously difficult to characterize via conventional X-ray diffraction. By combining state-of-the-art MicroED (microcrystal electron diffraction) with combinatorial chemistry method, Li Jian's team accelerated the development of nano-sized, extra-large-pore aluminosilicates zeolites. This approach yielded two fully connected frameworks, NJU120-1 and NJU120-2, each featuring an interconnected 22-membered-ring channel system. NJU120-1 forms ultrathin nanosheets (~8 nm thick, roughly 1.5 unit cells), while NJU120-2 assembles into nanorods measuring ~50 × 250 nm. Their spacious free-sphere apertures (~1.2 nm) and nanoscale morphologies enable efficient catalytic cracking of large molecules, opening new avenues in zeolite catalyst design. The relevant research results were published on June 27, 2025, in the journal Science under the title "Accelerated discovery of stable, extra- large- pore nano zeolites with micro-electron diffraction".

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv5073