Scalable Synthesis of Robust MOF for Challenging Ethylene Purification and Propylene Recovery with Record Productivity

Ethylene (C2H4) purification and propylene (C3H6) recovery are highly relevant in polymer synthesis, yet developing physisorbents for these industrial separation faces the challenges of merging easy scalability, economic feasibility, high moisture stability with great separation efficiency. Herein, we reported a robust and scalable MOF (MAC-4) for simultaneous recovery of C3H6 and C2H4. Through creating nonpolar pores decorated by accessible N/O sites, MAC-4 displays top-tier uptakes and selectivities for C2H6 and C3H6 over C2H4 at ambient conditions. Molecular modelling combined with infrared spectroscopy revealed that C2H6 and C3H6 molecules were trapped in the framework with stronger contacts relative to C2H4. Breakthrough experiments demonstrated exceptional separation performance for binary C2H6/C2H4 and C3H6/C2H4 as well as ternary C3H6/C2H6/C2H4 mixtures, simultaneously affording record productivities of 27.4 and 36.2 L kg-1 for high-purity C2H4 (>= 99.9 %) and C3H6 (>= 99.5 %). MAC-4 was facilely prepared at deckgram-scale under reflux condition within 3 hours, making it as a smart MOF to address challenging gas separations. Nonpolar pore environments with N/O active sites in a robust and scalable MOF (MAC-4) are generated for ethylene purification and propylene recovery. The material exhibits the good balance between excellent separation performance, facile scale synthesis, economic feasibility and high stability for applications.+ image