Zeolites: Historical Evolution and Current Relevance

After decades of intense research, zeolites have gained a primary role in the economic landscape, with several important industrial applications deriving from their distinctive properties, for example as water softeners in detergents, adsorbents in separation and purification technologies, and heterogeneous catalysts in chemical, petrochemical, and refining processes. Today, there is a growing awareness of the unsustainability of the model based on fossil sources, whose massive use leads to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Achieving carbon neutrality is the industry's primary goal, which is highly dependent on the availability of advanced materials. In this regard, zeolites have already proven to be capable of increasing the sustainability of chemical, petrochemical and refining processes. New applications require new advanced materials whose preparation is favored by the deep knowledge of the phenomena that govern their formation. In the case of zeolites, this is an interesting field of materials science, the development pathway of which started in the mid-eighteenth century, when they were discovered as minerals. Here, the fundamental stages of the history of zeolites are retraced, and this very interesting journey can help us better understand the great potential, but also the limits, of this fascinating family of materials.