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Tailoring the pore chemistry in porous aromatic frameworks for selective separation of acetylene from ethylene
Shuang Zhou1, Zhaoli Liu1, Panpan Zhang1
1Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University Changchun Jilin 130024 P. R. China liudt737@nenu.edu.cn zouxq100@nenu.edu.cn zhugs100@nenu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The separation of acetylene from ethylene is a crucial process in the petrochemical industry, because even traces of acetylene impurities can poison the catalysts of ethylene polymerization. Herein, we synthesize a new family of 3D porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs), non-functionalized PAF-28, carbene-functionalized PAF-28 (cPAF-28) and imidazolium-functionalized PAF-28 (iPAF-28), via Sonogashira coupling reactions. These PAFs show high porosity and good thermal stability. Both cPAF-28 and iPAF-28 are proved to be good candidates for C2H2 adsorption, demonstrated by C2H2/C2H4 selectivity of 12.2 and 15.4, and C2H2 capacity of 48 cm3 g-1 and 57 cm3 g-1, which are significantly higher than those of non-functionalized PAF-28 (1.8, 37 cm3 g-1). Furthermore, the cPAF-28 and iPAF-28 display good breakthrough performance and remarkable recyclability for the separation of the C2H2/C2H4 gas mixture. In addition, the C2H2/C2H4 adsorption sites are revealed by DFT calculations. This work sheds a new light on gas molecular recognition by tailoring the pore chemistry of PAFs.
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