Bioinspired Water-Stable Sc-MOF with Amino-Barb Vigreux-Type Channels for One-Step Ethylene Purification

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Adsorption Science

Background:

• Selective gas adsorption and separation are critical for industrial processes, particularly in the petrochemical industry.
• Existing materials often struggle with efficient separation of closely related C2 hydrocarbons (acetylene, ethylene, ethane).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel bioinspired metal-organic framework (MOF) for enhanced selective gas adsorption and separation.
• To investigate the separation performance of NTUniv-77 for C2 gases, focusing on high-purity ethylene production.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of a scandium-based MOF (Sc-MOF) denoted NTUniv-77 featuring Vigreux-type channels and amino-barb protrusions.
• Gas adsorption and separation experiments, including breakthrough tests.
• Gas-phase Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations to elucidate adsorption mechanisms.

Main Results:

• NTUniv-77 demonstrated high selectivity for acetylene/ethylene (42) and ethane/ethylene (3.6).
• The material enabled efficient, single-step purification of high-purity ethylene from C2 gas mixtures.
• Breakthrough experiments confirmed excellent separation performance with a production capacity of 1.29 mmol g⁻¹.

Conclusions:

• The bioinspired NTUniv-77 exhibits superior performance for C2 gas separation compared to benchmark MOFs.
• Hydrogen bonding interactions at the amino-barb sites are crucial for the material's separation efficiency.
• NTUniv-77 offers a promising solution for industrial-scale purification of ethylene.