Long-range diffusion in beds of nanoporous particles: pitfalls and potentials

Owing to the recent progress in the area of hardware and software of the pulsed field gradient NMR technique, molecular transport in real-life zeolite systems, such as zeolite beds and particles of formulated fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts, can be investigated in detail. These studies have revealed a number of important features of molecular transport in zeolites, which are reviewed in the present paper. In particular, the anomalous character of intracrystalline diffusion in MFI-type zeolites, dependence of the tortuosity factor in zeolite beds on diffusion regime and the role of various modes of diffusion in transport limitations arising for catalytic reactions in FCC catalysts will be discussed.