Metal-Organic Framework with Polar Pore Surface Designed for Purification of Both Natural Gas and Ethylene.

The advancement of high-value CH purification technology within the natural gas industry is paramount for industrial processes. Herein, we constructed ZJNU-402, a new porous material characterized by permanent porosity, as an effective adsorbent for separating CH/CH and CH/CH mixtures. The findings reveal an outstanding CH adsorption capacity of 68 cm g and a moderate CH adsorption rate of 42 cm g, with a notably lower CH adsorption rate of 11 cm g. Noteworthy is the exceptional selectivity of ZJNU-402 for CH/CH and CH/CH, standing at 375 and 31, respectively, surpassing many previously documented high-performance adsorbents and breaking the traditional trade-off between adsorption capacity and separation selectivity. Adsorption heat calculations show that compared with CH molecules, CH and CH molecules form stronger bonds with the skeleton, resulting in excellent separation performance. In addition, the breakthrough experiment of ZJNU-402 can also completely separate the ternary component CH/CH/CH mixture to obtain 99.95 % high-purity methane. At the same time, ZJNU-402 also has excellent structural stability, excellent recyclability, and low isosteric adsorption heat. Consequently, ZJNU-402 exhibits substantial potential for augmenting the efficacy of natural gas enrichment processes.