Elongated-Geminiarene: Syntheses, Solid-State Conformational Investigations, and Application in Aromatics/Cyclic Aliphatics Separation.

Energy-saving separation and purification of industrially important compounds with similar physical and chemical properties by novel molecular crystalline materials are of great importance and highly desired. Here a newly enlarged version of geminiarene, namely elongated-geminiarene (ElGA), is first designed and synthesized. Taking advantages of both geminiarenes and biphenarenes, ElGA shows great features including scalable synthesis, nanometer-sized cavity, rich blend of conformational features, and excellent solid-state host-guest properties. Significantly, the functional crystalline materials of ElGA are highly effective in the separation of aromatics and cyclic aliphatics, showing a preference for dimethylbenzene over its corresponding hydrogenation products and paving a new avenue for separation science and industry.