Diffusive Skin Effect in Zeolites

Effective contact and collision between reactants and active sites are essentialfor heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we investigated molecular diffusion in more than 200kinds of zeolites, and an intriguing"diffusive skin effect"was observed, whereby moleculesmigrated along the pore walls of zeolites (i.e.,diffusion trajectories) because of the effect of theguest-host interaction and diffusion barrier. Furthermore, it was found that such a"diffusiveskin effect"of zeolites would strongly promote the contacts and collisions between reactantsand active sites in the reaction process, which might effectively promote the zeolite-catalyzedperformance. These newfindings will provide some new fundamental understanding of zeolitecatalytic mechanisms under confinement effect