Efficient ethylene purification by a robust ethane-trapping porous organic cage

Abstract

The removal of ethane (C2H6) from its analogous ethylene (C2H4) is of paramount importance in the petrochemical industry, but highly challenging due to their similar physicochemical properties. It is still remaining unexploited to utilize emerging porous organic cage (POC) materials for C2H4/C2H6 separation. Herein, we report the benchmark example of a truncated octahedral calix[4]resorcinarene-based POC adsorbent (CPOC-301), preferring to adsorb C2H6 than C2H4, and thus can be used as a robust absorbent to directly separate high-purity C2H4 from the C2H4/C2H6 mixture. Molecular modelling studies suggest the exceptional C2H6 selectivity is due to the suitable resorcin[4]arene cavities in CPOC-301, which form more multiple C–H···π hydrogen bonds with C2H6 than with C2H4 guests. This work provides a fresh avenue to utilize POC materials for highly selective separation of industrially important hydrocarbons.

Optimizing the pore space of a robust nickel–organic framework for efficient C2H2/C2H4 separation

“…[4][5][6] In contrast, adsorptive separation based on porous materials has attracted extensive attention in academia and industry because of its high efficiency and low-energy consumption. [7][8][9][10][11] Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibit excellent application prospects in adsorption and separation because of their designable structures and tunable pore sizes/ functionalities. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Recently, MOFs have attracted increasing attention for their potential applications in C 2 hydrocarbon separation (C 2 H 2 /C 2 H 4 , C 2 H 4 /C 2 H 6 , and C 2 H 2 /C 2 H 6 , etc.).…”

A new fan-like adaptive porous organic cage for the structure determination of liquid perfume molecules

“…Although in comparison with other classes of porous materials, e.g., metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), POCs are still relatively less common, 11,12 the excellent solubility and adjustable external pore size make POCs good candidates as molecule catchers for the structure determination of liquid molecules with varied volumes. [13][14][15][16] In contrast, other cyclic host molecules, such as crown ethers, cyclodextrins, 17 calixarenes, 18 cucurbiturils, 19 and pillararenes, 20 are less commonly used as molecule catchers because their preorganized sizes of cavities are not consistent with the varied volumes of guest molecules.…”