Separation of ethylene from ethane is of great importance in petrochemical industry. Adsorptive separation making use of porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is an energy efficient technology compared to the conventional cryogenic distillation. However, preferential adsorption of ethylene over ethane represents the major current challenge. Here we demonstrate how pore structure can significantly alter the adsorption selectivity in two isoreticular Zr-MOFs. A simple ligand functionalization in UiO-66 yields smaller/better matching pore for ethane, and weaker interaction with ethylene, greatly enhancing ethane/ethylene selectivity in MOF-801. Ab initio calculations combined with in situ infrared spectroscopic analysis unveil the nature of host-guest interactions and differences in the overall binding energies. Polymer-grade ethylene (99.9%) can be produced directly from ethane/ethylene mixture in a single step. Having well-balanced adsorption capacity and selectivity, low-cost synthesis and easy scalability MOF-801 stands out as a promising ethane-selective adsorbent for one-step ethylene purification under ambient conditions.
Xie, Feng, et al. "The effect of pore structure in ethane-selective metal-organic frameworks for ethylene purification." Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 473, Aug. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.145096
Xie, Feng, Liu, Jiaqi, Graham, Wells, et al., "The effect of pore structure in ethane-selective metal-organic frameworks for ethylene purification," Chemical Engineering Journal 473 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.145096
@article{osti_2305721,
author = {Xie, Feng and Liu, Jiaqi and Graham, Wells and Ullah, Saif and Cedeño Morales, Eder Moisés and Tan, Kui and Thonhauser, Timo and Wang, Hao and Li, Jing},
title = {The effect of pore structure in ethane-selective metal-organic frameworks for ethylene purification},
annote = {Separation of ethylene from ethane is of great importance in petrochemical industry. Adsorptive separation making use of porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is an energy efficient technology compared to the conventional cryogenic distillation. However, preferential adsorption of ethylene over ethane represents the major current challenge. Here we demonstrate how pore structure can significantly alter the adsorption selectivity in two isoreticular Zr-MOFs. A simple ligand functionalization in UiO-66 yields smaller/better matching pore for ethane, and weaker interaction with ethylene, greatly enhancing ethane/ethylene selectivity in MOF-801. Ab initio calculations combined with in situ infrared spectroscopic analysis unveil the nature of host-guest interactions and differences in the overall binding energies. Polymer-grade ethylene (99.9%) can be produced directly from ethane/ethylene mixture in a single step. Having well-balanced adsorption capacity and selectivity, low-cost synthesis and easy scalability MOF-801 stands out as a promising ethane-selective adsorbent for one-step ethylene purification under ambient conditions.},
doi = {10.1016/j.cej.2023.145096},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2305721},
journal = {Chemical Engineering Journal},
issn = {ISSN 1385-8947},
volume = {473},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Elsevier},
year = {2023},
month = {08}}
