Issue 2, 2023

Insights into the thermodynamic–kinetic synergistic separation of propyne/propylene in anion pillared cage MOFs with entropy–enthalpy balanced adsorption sites

Abstract

Propyne/propylene (C3H4/C3H6) separation is an important industrial process yet challenged by the trade-off of selectivity and capacity due to the molecular similarity. Herein, record C3H4/C3H6 separation performance is achieved by fine tuning the pore structure in anion pillared MOFs. SIFSIX-Cu-TPA (ZNU-2-Si) displays a benchmark C3H4 capacity (106/188 cm3 g−1 at 0.01/1 bar and 298 K), excellent C3H4/C3H6 IAST selectivity (14.6–19.3) and kinetic selectivity, and record high C3H4/C3H6 (10/90) separation potential (36.2 mol kg−1). The practical C3H4/C3H6 separation performance is fully demonstrated by breakthroughs under various conditions. 37.8 and 52.9 mol kg−1 of polymer grade C3H6 can be produced from 10/90 and 1/99 C3H4/C3H6 mixtures. 4.7 mol kg−1 of >99% purity C3H4 can be recovered by a stepped desorption process. Based on the in situ single crystal analysis and DFT calculation, an unprecedented entropy–enthalpy balanced adsorption pathway is discovered. MD simulation further confirmed the thermodynamic–kinetic synergistic separation of C3H4/C3H6 in ZNU-2-Si.

Graphical abstract: Insights into the thermodynamic–kinetic synergistic separation of propyne/propylene in anion pillared cage MOFs with entropy–enthalpy balanced adsorption sites

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
15 Oct 2022
Accepted
22 Nov 2022
First published
28 Nov 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 298-309

Insights into the thermodynamic–kinetic synergistic separation of propyne/propylene in anion pillared cage MOFs with entropy–enthalpy balanced adsorption sites

Y. Jiang, L. Wang, T. Yan, J. Hu, W. Sun, R. Krishna, D. Wang, Z. Gu, D. Liu, X. Cui, H. Xing and Y. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 298 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC05742E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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