日本ゼオライト学会　刊行物 Publication of Japan Zeolite Association

Zeolite are aluminosilicate crystallines consisting of micropores of molecular dimensions, interconnected by small windows (5–8 Å diameters). Strict regularity of the pore structure enables higher selectivities to be achieved in both catalysis and sorption processes. The intrazeolite circumstances alike a "solid-solvent" having functional groups of OH and bridging O with counter cations e.g., Al³⁺, Si⁴⁺, Ti⁴⁺, and Na⁺ accomodate and interact with the selected molecules, resulted in the syntheses of organometallic complexes, similarly in solution.

It becomes of a recent interest to proceed the intrazeolite synthesis of bulky metal/bimetallic cluster compounds. This is coined as "Ship-in-Bottle" synthesis of metal clusters. This review is dealt with (1) introduction of "ship-in-bottle" technique for molecular architeture of bimetallic cluster in zeolite micropores, (2) their characterization and structural analysis by means of EXAFS, ETIR, TPD and ¹²⁹Xe NMR spectroscopies, (3) adsorption properties of bimetal (alloy) clusters in zeolites and their catalytic performances in CO hydrogenation, olefin hydroformylation and alkane hydrogenolysis and (4) structural control for catalytic selectivities of the intrazeolite bimetal clusters, their reactivities and stabilities. The metal clusters entrapped inside zeolite pores are potentioal materials not only for tailored metal catalysts but also quantum dots for photo/electronic divices.