Efficient ethylene purification by a robust ethane-trapping porous organic cage.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34140501.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-24042-7 and PMC identifier 8211788.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The removal of ethane (C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>) from its analogous ethylene (C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>) is of paramount importance in the petrochemical industry, but highly challenging due to their similar physicochemical properties. The use of emerging porous organic cage (POC) materials for C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>/C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> separation is still in its infancy. Here, we report the benchmark example of a truncated octahedral calix[4]resorcinarene-based POC adsorbent (CPOC-301), preferring to adsorb C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub> than C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>, and thus can be used as a robust absorbent to directly separate high-purity C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> from the C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>/C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> mixture. Molecular modelling studies suggest the exceptional C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub> selectivity is due to the suitable resorcin[4]arene cavities in CPOC-301, which form more multiple C-H···π hydrogen bonds with C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub> than with C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> guests. This work provides a fresh avenue to utilize POC materials for highly selective separation of industrially important hydrocarbons.