Amphipathic Pentiptycene-Based Water-Resistant Cu-MOF for Efficient Oil/Water Separation.

Creating novel and practical materials to separate oil/water mixtures with high efficacy is in urgent demand. Herein, we demonstrate an amphipathic pentiptycene-based copper metal-organic framework (Cu-MOF; UPC-29) to satisfy this purpose. UPC-29 exhibits a efficient separation performance for mixtures of naphtha/water, gasoline/water, and diesel/water. Furthermore, materials under loose-packed and tight-pressed forms exhibit opposite hydrophilic-hydrophobic phenomena. This unique feature of UPC-29 provides a new avenue for the application of MOF materials.