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

We report a bioinspired Sc-MOF NTUniv-77 with Vigreux-type channels and amino-barb protrusions that enable selective gas adsorption. The unique amino group arrangement facilitates multistage cascade separation, enhancing C₂H₂ and C₂H₆ adsorption while allowing high-purity C₂H₄ purification in a single step. NTUniv-77 shows outstanding separation performance, with a C₂H₂/C₂H₄ (1:99) selectivity of 42 and C₂H₆/C₂H₄ (1:9) selectivity of 3.6, surpassing benchmark MOFs. GCMC simulations reveal that hydrogen bonding interactions at amino-barb sites are key to its efficiency. Breakthrough experiments confirmed the efficient separation of C2 gases, yielding high-purity C₂H₄ with a production capacity of 1.29 mmol g^-1.