Zeolite Catalyst Interface Engineering Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filings have cooled since the 2018 peak. 20 families that year against a single-digit midpoint by 2022 and just one filing in the latest partial year — this is a maturing claim space, not a growing one.
- Claim activity concentrates far outside the core IPC class. B01J catalysis covers nearly the whole set, but C07C organic compound chemistry and C01B inorganic chemistry each carry a substantial share, showing the interface work is claimed through downstream product chemistry as much as through the catalyst itself.
- The most-cited prior art is two decades old. The highest-citation records date back to the 1990s and early 2000s, meaning influence in this corpus is a lagging signal — recent filers are building around, not on top of, current activity.
Filing growth compares 2021 (15 records) with 2024 (14) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 395 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 395 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine zeolite or molecular sieve catalyst claims with explicit interface language — metal-support interaction, active site interface, acid-metal interface or surface modification — inside the core catalysis IPC classes B01J29, B01J35 and B01J37. The scope is deliberately narrow: it is not zeolite chemistry broadly, but the subset where the applicant has claimed something about how a metal, acid site or surface is engineered relative to the zeolite framework.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in any trend line will read lower than the true filing volume once those applications clear examination and publish. Treat the most recent year as a floor, not a ceiling.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 395 families: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A peak in 2018, then a flat-to-declining line
Filings ran at 15 in 2017, rose to a peak of 20 in 2018, and had fallen to a midpoint of 7 by 2022. The trajectory through the latest partial year points to a technology area where the core claim territory has already been staked out rather than one still attracting new entrants.
Concentrated in catalysis, spread across downstream chemistry
B01J accounts for nearly the entire set (392 of 395), confirming the search scope, but the second and third largest subclasses — C07C acyclic/carbocyclic compounds and C01B inorganic compounds — show that a large share of interface claims are anchored to a specific product chemistry (alkylation, oxidation, hydrocarbon conversion) rather than to the catalyst structure alone. C10G refining and B01D separation each carry a meaningful share too, pointing to process-integration claims sitting alongside pure catalyst-composition claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 395 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Zeolite Catalyst Interface Engineering with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about zeolite catalyst interface engineering and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art and a recent representative filing
US20260001066A1 — NiCu/La-ZEOLITE CATALYST
A method of manufacturing a catalyst includes mechanochemically processing an input material to generate a processed material, where the input material comprises a support and loading the processed material with a loading material. The support is a zeolite, a Beta zeolite, or a H-Beta zeolite and the loading material comprises nickel (Ni) or nickel-copper (NiCu). Lanthanum oxide (La2O3) is a promoter for the catalyst. A first interface of a NiCu/La-zeolite catalyst is generated when the loading material further includes the promoter; and a second interface of a NiCu/La-zeolite catalyst is generated when the input material further includes the promoter.Filed by Khalifa University of Science and Technology, dated 2026-01-01 — one of the most recent publications in the dataset.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5157191A | Modified crystalline aluminosilicate zeolite catalyst and its use in the production of lubes of high viscosit… | 229 |
| 2 | US5859265A | Oxidation catalyst, its preparation and oxidation using the oxidation catalyst | 213 |
| 3 | US6043177A | Modification of zeolite or molecular sieve membranes using atomic layer controlled chemical vapor deposition | 174 |
| 4 | US5723710A | Zeolite beta and its use in aromatic alkylation | 164 |
| 5 | US20100249479A1 | Catalyst composition, its preparation and use | 101 |
| 6 | US6248682B1 | Incorporation of zeolites into hybrid polymer matrices | 98 |
| 7 | US6162416A | Zeolite beta and its use in aromatic alkylation | 95 |
| 8 | WO2013106816A1 | Introduction of mesoporosity into low silica zeolites | 93 |
| 9 | US4568786A | Production of lubricant range hydrocarbons from light olefins | 88 |
| 10 | US6486373B1 | Shape selective zeolite catalyst and its use in aromatic compound conversion | 84 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records simply because they have had more time to be cited — read this table as a map of influential prior art to search around, not as a ranking of current importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about where this field stands
Four read-outs from the filing trend, IPC spread and receiving-office data, translated into what they mean for a filing or freedom-to-operate decision.
A cooling, not a growing, claim space
Volume peaked in 2018 and has declined through the 2022 midpoint to a single filing so far in the latest partial year. Even allowing for publication lag, the trajectory is downward rather than upward, which argues against treating this as an emerging area and for scrutinising why activity slowed.
US-centred, with China closing the gap on Europe
The United States receives roughly double the filings of the next office, but China's 52 filings sit close behind Europe's 59, suggesting Chinese applicants are now filing in this space at a rate comparable to European ones even though the office totals are still US-led.
Interface claims travel with product chemistry
Nearly half the corpus also carries a C07C acyclic/carbocyclic compound classification, and close to a third carries C01B inorganic compounds. Interface engineering is rarely claimed in isolation — it is bundled with the specific conversion chemistry the catalyst is built for.
Influential prior art predates the search window
The most-cited record in the corpus is a 1990s aluminosilicate zeolite catalyst patent, and the next several highest-cited records are similarly aged. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work here needs to search well outside the 2015–2026 window this dataset covers.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to zeolite catalyst interface engineering, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the ground, and who has gone quiet
Co-assignee pairings and recent-year filing activity point to a small set of established filers whose momentum has largely stopped, alongside newer academic entrants.
BP's two entities file jointly, and consistently
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset links BP's North American and UK international entities across 16 shared families, the single largest co-filing relationship in the corpus.
Sinopec files through its Shanghai research arm
China's second-strongest pairing links Sinopec's parent entity with its Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute, an internal research-to-assignee pipeline rather than a cross-company collaboration.
The historical leaders have stopped filing
Every one of the assignees with the deepest filing history in this dataset — including Mobil, UOP, BP, Johnson Matthey, ExxonMobil and BP International — shows zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader decline in the filing trend.
Academic filers are entering as corporate activity slows
The most recent representative filing in the dataset comes from a university rather than an incumbent refiner or catalyst maker, a pattern worth watching if corporate filing continues to taper.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mobil Oil Corporation | 0 | — |
| UOP LLC | 0 | — |
| BP Corporation North America Inc. | 0 | — |
| Johnson Matthey PLC | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc. | 0 | — |
| BP International Limited | 0 | — |
| Reve Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature, US-led claim space with specific under-claimed branches. These are the natural next steps for a team deciding whether to file, license or design around.
Map freedom-to-operate against pre-2015 prior art
The most-cited records predate this dataset's window entirely, so a serious FTO check needs to extend the search back through the 1990s and 2000s foundational patents before relying on this corpus alone.
Run a prior-art search in EurekaWatch for academic and Gulf-region entrants
With incumbent filers quiet in the latest year, new activity from universities and non-traditional filers is worth monitoring as an early signal of where the field moves next.
Track new filings in EurekaDraft around the under-claimed branches
Mechanochemical loading and bimetallic promoter interfaces show thinner coverage than the core acid-metal interface claims — a first claim there faces less dense prior art.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
In this dataset, it is a patent family classified under the core catalysis IPC codes B01J29, B01J35 or B01J37 that also uses explicit interface language in its title or claims — terms like metal-support interaction, active site interface, acid-metal interface or surface modification. This excludes general zeolite composition patents that do not address how a metal, acid site or surface is engineered relative to the framework. The narrow scope means the 395 families here are a subset of the much larger body of zeolite catalyst patents overall.
The filing trend peaked at 20 families in 2018 and fell to a midpoint of 7 by 2022, continuing down through the latest partial year. This pattern is typical of a claim space where the foundational combinations — which metals, which promoters, which zeolite frameworks — have already been staked out by incumbent filers, leaving less obvious room for new composition claims. It does not mean the underlying chemistry stopped mattering; it means the patenting activity around it has slowed, which is different from the technology becoming less commercially relevant.
The strongest documented relationship in the co-assignee data links BP's North American and UK international entities, with Sinopec's parent and its Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute forming the next strongest internal pairing. However, every one of the historically deepest filers in this dataset — including Mobil, UOP, BP, Johnson Matthey and ExxonMobil's chemical patents entity — shows zero filings in the most recent year, so current leadership by volume is not the same as current leadership by activity.
IPC composition data shows dense coverage in core catalysis (B01J) and heavy overlap with organic and inorganic product chemistry (C07C, C01B), but comparatively thin coverage in exhaust-treatment applications (F01N) and heterocyclic conversion (C07D). Mechanochemical loading methods and bimetallic promoter interfaces, as seen in the most recent representative filing, also sit outside the densest claim clusters. These thinner branches are where a first claim is more likely to clear prior art cleanly than in the core acid-metal interface territory.
It understates true activity. Patent applications typically take about 18 months to publish after filing, so any filing made in late 2024 through mid-2026 may not yet appear in this dataset. The single filing shown for the latest partial year should be read as a floor, not as evidence that filing has stopped entirely — a fuller picture will only be visible once the current backlog of applications clears publication.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.