Zeolites are the workhorses for sustainable industrial chemistry but also for emerging new

applications. The more surprising is the fact their genesis still remains largely in the dark. Hydrated

silicate ionic liquids (HSILs) are clear liquids without presence of any gel or particle fraction. Having

been described long ago, they never were considered for zeolite synthesis. Their water content is so

low that every water molecule takes part in hydration of (alumino)-silicate –ation ion pairs. This

offers ideal conditions for a detailed fundamental study of zeolite formation: No hydrothermal

pressure is expressed during heating and diagnostics, usually obstructed by presence of gel or

particles in classic syntheses, can access processes occurring on molecular, mesoscale and

macroscopic level. Furthermore, a preliminary study has revealed the speciation in these systems is

limited and well defined, that zeolites can be synthesized at low temperatures and short times and

that onset of zeolite formation can be controlled by aluminate addition. This project will focus on

unraveling zeolite nucleation and growth on molecular level, combining state of the art liquid and

solid state NMR, SAXS, DLS and WAXS with molecular simulation. Asides the opportunity to describe

zeolite formation with unprecedented accuracy the study also will lead to development of new

synthesis approaches like continuous zeolite synthesis and hierarchical functional materials.