Tearing structures

Zeolites are made from linked SiO4 tetrahedra and contain channels and cavities. Many zeolites are built from similar buiding units. a famous example is zeolite A (LTA) and faujasite (FAU) which are both constructed from sodalite-cages (sod).
Sometimes different structures have very similar connectivities of identical units and can form material families with high degree of disorder. The ZSM-48 family is an example.
A detailed analysis of 2 samples of this family revealed that shear forces during synthesis can transform one structure into the other.
This study was done in collaboration with EMAT in Antwerp and IFP in Lyon