Recent advances in customizing the electrostatic potential pore environments of metal-organic frameworks for C₂H₂ and...

High-purity acetylene (C₂H₂) and ethylene (C₂H₄) are valuable and critical chemicals, whereas the impurities with closely similar structures and properties pose significant challenges for their purifications. Inspired by biological recognition systems, adsorptive separation based on the discrimination of electrostatic potential (ESP) differences among gas molecules has emerged as a promising approach for gas-mixture separation. Compared to traditional kinetic and thermodynamic mechanisms, ESP-driven separations demonstrate advantages such as high separation selectivity, fast diffusion rate, and facile regeneration. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in the rational design of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with tailored ESP pore environments, highlighting their applications in ESP-driven separation processes for producing high-purity C₂H₂ and C₂H₄. Furthermore, we summarize and discuss the strategies for modifying MOF adsorbents and the characterization techniques employed to elucidate their underlying separation mechanisms. Lastly, this review outlines current challenges and future prospects in this field, aiming to provide valuable insights into ongoing research for achieving efficient ESP-driven separation for complex gas-mixtures in a single step.