Selective Adsorption and Separation of Xylene Isomers and Benzene/Cyclohexane with Microporous Organic Polymers POP-1

Abstract

The separation of chemical substances with analogous chemical structures and physical properties remains a great challenge. In this work, triptycene-like microporous organic polymers (MOPs), POP-1, was synthesized via choosing 1,4-dimethoxybenzene (DMB) and triptycene as external cross-linkers and building blocks, respectively, and POP-1 was employed to separate xylene isomers and benzene (Bz)/cyclohexane (Cy). Results show that POP-1 has a higher uptake for m-xylene (0.29 g/g) and Bz (1.02 g/g); more intriguingly, their complete separation can be realized within 0.6 min using a column packed with POP-1. The interaction between POP-1 networks and adsorbates was also investigated using theoretical (density functional theory together with noncovalent interaction analysis) and experimental (inverse gas chromatography) approaches. Especially, both results present a good agreement, that is, weak interactions such as CH/π interactions play a dominant role in defining the separation performance of POP-1 for xylene isomers and Bz/Cy mixtures. Our findings suggest that MOPs may open up a new route for separating the chemicals that are similar in structure and size.

Separation and Purification of Hydrocarbons with Porous Materials

“…The triptycene‐like microporous organic polymer POP‐1 was reported for the separation of xylene isomers. [109c] The weak CH/π interactions were successfully used to tune the host–guest interactions and to achieve separation of xylene isomers. In 2019, COFs were first reported by Huang and co‐workers for the separation of xylene isomers and ethylbenzene.…”

Sensitive sensors based on bilayer organic field-effect transistors for detecting lithium-ion battery electrolyte leakage

“…3c) were described. The binding energy between biurea and DEC was evaluated, and the resulting binding energy of −33.05 kJ mol −1 was within the range of conventional hydrogen bonds [37]. The distances from the H atom of the imino and amino groups of biurea to the O atom of the carbonyl group of DEC are 2.43 and 2.15 Å in the optimized adduct, respectively.…”

Triptycene-Based and Amine-Linked Nanoporous Networks for Efficient CO2 Capture and Separation

“…These results evidently hint that the PSD of TBPALs may be tuned easily by changing the number of reactive sites in the monomers. The microporosity present in TBPALs is ascribed to the incorporation of the rigid 3D triptycene units in the polymer network (Chen et al, 2016;Roy et al, 2017;Bera et al, 2018bBera et al, , 2019Tan et al, 2018).…”