Regioselective Separation and Extraction of Polyalkylthiophene by Metal-Organic Frameworks

Here, we report a novel method for selectively extracting high-regioregularity (RR) poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) from crude mixtures using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as nanoporous separation media. This approach leverages a kinetically driven "threading" mechanism in one-dimensional MOF channels, which discriminate subtle differences in the bonding patterns, e.g., head-head and head-tail linkages, in the main chain. By employing both MOF column chromatography and batch-scale separation techniques, higher RR fractions of P3HT were readily extracted from a crude mixture containing lower RR fractions.