Adenine-mediated amide-containing metal-organic framework toward one-step ethylene purification from a ternary mixture

Abstract

Simultaneous removal of acetylene (C2H2) and ethane (C2H6) from a ternary gas mixture of acetylene/ethylene/ethane via a one-step process to achieve high purity of ethylene (C2H4) is challenging but highly desirable. Herein, an amide-containing adenine-mediated rod metal-organic framework (MOF) of 1 was solvothermally constructed by means of mixed-linker approach. Structural analysis illustrates that 1 displays 1D microporous channels and features open metal site-free concomitant with uncoordinated carboxylate oxygen atoms and amide functional groups decorated interior pore walls. Interestingly, both single-component gas adsorption and ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) prediction reveal that 1 is C2H2 and C2H6 selective, which were eventually confirmed by dynamic column breakthrough experiments through not only binary gas mixtures of C2H2/C2H4 and C2H6/C2H4, but also a ternary mixture of C2H2/C2H4/C2H6 to validate one-step ethylene purification.