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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

From Molecules to Materials: Engineering New Ionic Liquid Crystals Through Halogen Bonding
Published on: March 24, 2018
Alkane Shape- and Size-Recognized Selective Vapor Sorption in "Channel-Like" Crystals Based on Thiacalixarene
Manabu Yamada1, Fumiya Uemura2, Uma Maheswara Rao Kunda1
1Research Center of Advanced Materials for Breakthrough Technology, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Akita University, 1-1 Tegatagakuen-machi, Akita, 010-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
Alkanes composed of C-C and C-H show a low electric polarization, and therefore, there is only very weak interaction between alkanes and adsorbents. Thus, it is difficult to separate a specific alkane from a mixture of alkanes by adsorption. Here, two activated "channel-like" crystals generated from brominated thiacalix[4]arene propyl ethers, which adopt 1,3-alternate and partial cone conformations, recognize specific alkane vapors depending on alkane-shape and -size, sorting in three-type alkane guests such as linear, branched, and cyclic alkanes. Two activated crystals, which are prepared by removal of solvent upon heating under reduced pressure, incorporate branched and/or cyclic alkane vapors by a unique "gate-opening" mechanism via a crystal transformation in the process. Linear alkane vapors do not trigger gate opening and are not taken up by the activated crystals. The shape and size molecular-recognition properties of the activated crystals promises considerable usefulness for the separation of linear, branched, and cyclic alkanes.
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