Deciphering the intermolecular interactions for separating bicyclic and tricyclic aromatics via different naphthalene-based solvents

The traditional separation of bicyclic and tricyclic aromatics from coal tar involves complicated multi-steps and consumes significantly more energy. Previous work accomplished the separation between anthracene-phenanthrene isomers using electrostatic interaction, but for the separation between bicyclic and tricyclic aromatics, electrostatic interactions are difficult to produce a recognizable effect. Naphthalene-based solvents, named as naphthaleneacetamide, naphthaleneethanol, naphthalenemethanol, naphthol, naphthylacetic acid, naphthylacetonitrile, and naphthylamine, respectively, were used for the efficient separation of naphthalene and phenanthrene via dispersion interaction. Results showed that the pre-studied structural parameters are the key factors in selecting an efficient solvent. And the substituents on the intermolecular interactions involved in the separation processes had an important impact, which were evaluated. Naphthalenemethanol exhibited a superior performance with a purity of 96.3 wt