Sulfur
hexafluoride (SF6), which has a greenhouse effect
of 228 000 times more terrible than carbon dioxide, has attracted
increasing attention. Its efficient capture, especially from the mixtures
with low SF6 concentrations, is urgently needed while challenging.
Herein, we use a calcium (Ca)-based metal–organic framework
(MOF; SBMOF-1) with multiaromatic ring-functionalized channels to
achieve a record selectivity as high as 727 for an industrially relevant
SF6/N2 mixture (volume concentration of SF6: 0.03%) at 298 K and 1 bar. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations
and density functional theory calculations identified that SF6 molecules were energy-favorably trapped in the functionalized
MOF channels by the strong interactions between the channel walls
and six fluorine atoms on SF6. Excellent breakthrough results
accompanied with good stability and regenerability recommend its promising
application for practical SF6 capture from low-concentration
SF6 mixtures, which also provides a new benchmark for SF6/N2 separation.
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