Robust Nickel-Based Metal-Organic Framework for Highly Efficient Methane Purification and Capture.

Developing energy-efficient alternatives for methane (CH) purification from natural gas and methane capture of coal-mine gas is of great significance and challenge in the chemical industry. Herein, we report a robust nickel-based metal-organic framework (MOF), Ni-BPZ, featuring one-dimensional (1D) rhombic channels decorated with abundant pyrazole rings. Ni-BPZ exhibits excellent separation performance toward both CH/CH and CH/N binary mixtures. The CH/CH selectivity of Ni-BPZ is high, up to 50.2, exceeding those of most MOF adsorbents reported, and it simultaneously possesses a remarkable CH uptake of 2.46 mmol/g at 298 K and 0.1 bar. The CH/N selectivity of Ni-BPZ reaches 6.6, and its high CH uptake is 1.56 mmol/g, which is also superior to most high-performance CH adsorbents. The molecular simulation reveals that the uniform 1D rhombic channels with abundant pyrazole rings provide a high density of potential adsorption sites for efficient CH/CH and CH/N separations.