Dey Avishek, Chand Santanu, Maity Bholanath, Bhatt Prashant M, Ghosh Munmun, Cavallo Luigi, Eddaoudi Mohamed, Khashab Niveen M
Smart Hybrid Materials (SHMs) Laboratory, Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Mar 24;143(11):4090-4094. doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c13019. Epub 2021 Mar 10.
The separation of styrene (ST) and ethylbenzene (EB) mixtures is of great importance in the petrochemical and plastics industries. Current technology employs multiple cycles of energy-intensive distillation due to the very close boiling points of ST and EB. Here, we show that the molecular sieving properties of easily scalable and stable trianglimine crystals offer ultrahigh selectivity (99%) for styrene separation. The unique molecular sieving properties of trianglimine crystals are corroborated by DFT calculations, suggesting that the incorporation of the nonplanar EB requires a significant deformation of the macrocyclic cavity whereas the planar ST can be easily accommodated in the cavity.
苯乙烯（ST）和乙苯（EB）混合物的分离在石化和塑料工业中具有重要意义。由于ST和EB的沸点非常接近，目前的技术采用多个能量密集型蒸馏循环。在此，我们表明，易于扩展且稳定的三角胺晶体的分子筛特性对苯乙烯分离具有超高选择性（99%）。密度泛函理论计算证实了三角胺晶体独特的分子筛特性，这表明非平面的EB纳入大环腔需要大环腔发生显著变形，而平面的ST可以很容易地容纳在腔内。
