Enhancing Ethane/Ethylene Separation Performance in Two Dynamic MOFs by Regulating Temperature-Controlled Structural Interpenetration.

The separation of ethane from ethylene is an important but challenging process in the chemical industry because of their similar physicochemical properties. Generally, the adsorbents for C 2 H 6 /C 2 H 4 separation require an appropriate and relatively small aperture. Herein, we report two dynamic pillar-layered metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) BUT-111 and BUT-112 with isomorphic frameworks but different degrees of interpenetration for efficient C 2 H 4 purification. The dynamic behavior makes both the activated MOFs exhibit ultramicropores and reversed order adsorption behavior for C 2 H 6 and C 2 H 4 , which could obtain highly purified C 2 H 4 in one step from the C 2 H 6 /C 2 H 4 mixture. BUT-111 and BUT-112 could work in a wide temperature range, and with the decrease in temperature, the C 2 H 6 /C 2 H 4 selectivity would increase. Moreover, the degree of interpenetration could be well controlled by the synthetic temperature, and the increase in the interpenetration degree of BUT-112 enhanced the C 2 H 4 purification effectively.