Metal-organic frameworks offer significant promise in gas separations due to their porosity and structural tunability. Currently, cryogenic distillation used in the separations of small olefins and paraffins is energetically and financially costly. Adsorbent-based separations promise to reduce these costs by completing the separation at temperatures and pressures closer to ambient. Here, we report a metal-organic framework capable of separating ethylene from ethane and propylene from propane with selectivities far exceeding those of previously reported metal-organic frameworks. Coordinatively unsaturated metal centers with a high positive charge are used as the primary method through which this separation is completed. Multicomponent breakthrough experiments are used to confirm the selectivities calculated from single-component isotherms. Finally, the separation of a complex mixture of gases related to an industrial process is demonstrated in this MOF.

Record selectivity for olefin/paraffin separations in a metal-organic framework

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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