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Zeolites, with their crystalline microporous structures, are cordial hosts to a wide variety of guests. However, it was the abrupt and unexpected departure of one of these guests (water) from a host (stilbite) on heating which led Cronstedt, in 1756, to coin the term zeolite (from the Greek meaning boiling stone ) to describe this material. Since that time, approximately 40 different naturally-occurring zeolites have been discovered on earth. Recent studies of meteorite compositions have shown that these guest-host materials (e. g. , sodalite) occur in other parts of the universe as well. However, it wasn’t until the twentieth century that synthetic routes to zeolites and other non-aluminosilicate molecular sieves were discovered. In addition, with the development of X-ray diffraction and the various spectroscopies, better understanding of the nature of the cavities, cages, and channels of these materials has led to the industrial exploitation of their guest-host properties. The world of zeolites has now expanded into a greater than 2 billion pound per year business, with major applications in detergent formulations, catalysis, and as adsorbents and desiccants. Their economic impact is difficult to determine; however, the improvement in gasoline yields alone (from catalytic cracking) must account for hundreds ofbillions ofdollars in increased GDP. In this volume, we have brought together a sampling of recent developments in various areas of guest-host or inclusion chemistry in zeolites.
