Modification of photochemical reactivity by zeolites: arrested molecular rotation of polyenes by inclusion in zeolites

In this work we have utilized faujasite [2] and pentasil [3] zeolites as hosts to carry out phototransformations of several organic molecules. Although they possess completely interconnecting three dimensional pore structures these two types of zeolite have fundamentally different void space topologies (Fig. 1). While the former consists of relatively large and spherical cages (diameter about 13 Å; entrance pore diameter about 8 Å), the latter contains only interconnecting channels (diameter about 5.5 Å)