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Updated: Jan 15, 2026

Depolymerizable Olefinic Polymers Based on Fused-Ring Cyclooctene Monomers
Published on: December 16, 2022
Moderately polarized carborane-MOF with inverse C2 selectivity for one-step polymer-grade ethylene purification
Changhong Liu1, Guangzu Xiong1, Yuzhe Wang2
1Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, College of Chemistry and Materials Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China. lywang@zjnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Ethylene purification from ternary C2 mixtures (C2H2/C2H4/C2H6) typically requires multi-step processes due to competing adsorption mechanisms in conventional adsorbents. Herein, we report a carborane-based metal-organic framework (CB-Zn-DPG) featuring moderately polarized pore surfaces that inverts traditional selectivity trends. Unlike polar MOFs (C2H2 > C2H4 > C2H6) or nonpolar MOFs (C2H6 > C2H4 > C2H2), CB-Zn-DPG simultaneously captures both C2H2 (61.5 cm3 g-1) and C2H6 (44.0 cm3 g-1) preferentially over C2H4 (42.4 cm3 g-1) at 298 K and 1.0 bar, with higher isosteric heats for impurities (C2H2 31.5 kJ mol-1; C2H6 29.8 kJ mol-1vs. C2H4 25.9 kJ mol-1). DFT calculations reveal multi-site van der Waals interactions at the channel centers for C2H2/C2H6, while C2H4 adsorbs weakly at the pore corners. Dynamic breakthroughs confirm direct production of >99.99% polymer-grade C2H4 from equimolar C2H4/C2H6 (50/50) and ternary C2H2/C2H4/C2H6 (1/90/9) mixtures in a single column operation. This work establishes pore-surface polarity engineering as a paradigm for challenging hydrocarbon separations.
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