Zeolites as Functional Materials for Energy Technology

Zeolites are solids with infinitely extending three-dimensional frameworks of alumina and silica tetrahedra. They first appeared in an academic journal published by Axel Fredick Cronstedt in 1756. However, the zeolite chemistry was halted for almost 200 years as natural zeolites were so rare, until large-scale industrial production was invented by Richard Barrer in 1930-40s. Ever since then, zeolites have been intensively studied by researchers on their special structures and properties. The discovery of molecular sieve property of zeolite was of vital importance. It allows zeolites to have wide range of applications. Zeolites started to be involved in the energy field in the last two decades. In this paper, the role of zeolites in biofuel and direct methanol fuel cell would be reviewed.