Efficient CH/CH adsorption separation by a microporous heterometal-organic framework.

Purification of ethylene (CH) is an essential and energy-intensive process in the petrochemical industry. Adsorption separation using ethane (CH)-selective porous adsorbents is a highly efficient and straightforward method for obtaining polymer-grade CH from a binary CH/CH mixture. However, the design and construction of CH-selective adsorbents are very challenging tasks. Herein, we demonstrate a microporous heterometal-organic framework, CuIn(ina), can preferentially enrich CH than CH. Experimental results revealed that CuIn(ina) exhibited remarkable separation performance for the CH/CH mixture with a high CH loading capacity (3.3 mmol/g), high IAST selectivity (2.3) and separation potential (1578 mmol/L for equimolar CH/CH mixture) under ambient conditions. The effectiveness of CuIn(ina) for CH/CH adsorption separation was confirmed by theoretical calculations and breakthrough experiments.