Lanthanide-Organic Frameworks Featuring Three-Dimensional Inorganic Connectivity for Multipurpose Hydrocarbon...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Lanthanide-organic frameworks (LOFs) often lack permanent porosity due to lanthanide ion flexibility, hindering their use as solid adsorbents.
• Developing robust LOFs with stable porosity is crucial for industrial applications like hydrocarbon separation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize robust lanthanide-organic frameworks (LOFs) with permanent porosity.
• To investigate their application in challenging hydrocarbon separations, including ethylene purification.

Main Methods:

• Rational synthesis of heterofunctional linkers with N and O donors on an m-terphenyl skeleton.
• Construction of isostructural LOFs featuring a 3D metal-carboxylate backbone.
• Characterization of permanent porosity using gas isotherms.

Main Results:

• Successfully established permanent porosities in the synthesized LOFs.
• Demonstrated effectiveness in natural gas purification and CO2 removal from C2 hydrocarbons.
• Achieved single-step purification of ethylene (C2H4) from a C2H4/C2H6/C2H2 mixture, a challenging separation.

Conclusions:

• The developed LOFs exhibit robust, permanent porosity due to their unique 3D inorganic connectivity.
• These LOFs are versatile for multiple hydrocarbon separations, including difficult C2 hydrocarbon processing.
• This work presents a novel approach to designing LOFs for advanced gas separation technologies.