Framework flexibility and rational design of new zeolites for catalysis

Zeolite materials have proved very useful as chemical catalysts and the search for new zeolite structures with novel channel and pore shapes is ongoing. We discuss a geometric feature of zeolite frameworks, the flexibility window, which may provide a criterion to identify hypothetical structures which can be synthesised as zeolites. In recent research using data on zeolite frameworks under compression, we show strong links between this geometric feature and the physics of zeolite frameworks.