Customized pore fluorination in a microporous metal-organic framework for efficient ethane/ethylene separation

High efficiency and energy-saving separation of C₂H₆/C₂H₄ mixtures to product high purity C₂H₄ is vital and very meaningful industrial task. However, it remains a formidable challenge to fabricate high-performance adsorbents with simultaneous high C₂H₆ uptake and moderate adsorption enthalpy. Here, we reported a microporous MOF (NKU-0821) with suitable aperture size and F atoms functional pore surface, which can capture efficiently C₂H₆ from C₂H₆/C₂H₄ mixture. Single-component adsorption experiments show that NKU-0821a (activated NKU-0821) exhibits preferred C₂H₆ uptake at the full-pressure region than C₂H₄. The corresponding C₂H₆ adsorption enthalpy of NKU-0821a is 27.3 kJ mol⁻¹, which is lower than most famous C₂H₆-selective MOFs. The calculation of IAST selectivity and breakthrough experiments have shown NKU-0821a can effectively separate C₂H₆/C₂H₄ mixture under simulated industrial conditions. Moreover, GCMC simulations revealed the key role of fluorous surface.