10A novel kind of composites is synthesized due to the outstanding properties of carbon materials. Metallic platinum is deposited 11 on porous carbon discs by means of Potential Step Deposition (PSD) under potentiostatic conditions. Afterwards, the Pt-coated 12 discs were covered completely with colloidal zeolite (silicalite-1) crystals by means of the novel Electro Phoretic Deposition 13 (EPD) methodology. After standard hydrothermal treatment, the seed crystal coating becomes continuous, crack-free and well-14 intergrown, giving rise to a layer of silicalite-1 crystals of different sizes. It must be noted that Pt combined with the secondary 15 growth methodology has a extremely important effect on the orientation of the growing zeolite crystals. These novel materials have 16 a wide range of potential applications as membrane reactors and/or catalyst membranes after activation (i.e. template removal by 17 calcination) of the zeolite crystals.
22As a direct consequence of the many applications of 23 crystalline zeolites, such as ion exchangers, adsorbents, 24 and molecular sieves fl], and all the possibilities implied 25 therein, increasing attention has been paid to preparing 26 zeolite membranes over the years [2], 27 Considering the many different strategies that have 28 been employed nowadays [3][4][5][6][7] and the wide variety of 29 supports that have been tested already , one might 30 think that the issue of preparing a supported zeolite 31 membrane has been successfully achieved. This, how-32 ever is not so, because even from the initial approach 33 of the direct treatment of the support with a zeolite pre-34 cursor solution [8]