Porous materials with suitable pore size and dual-functional sites for benchmark one-step ethylene purification

Multiple impurities removal represents one of the most daunting challenges in gas purification, but the attainment of efficient adsorptive separation is hindered by the difficulty in designing adsorbents that could simultaneously capture different impurities. Herein, we revealed a molecular trap within Zn-trz-ox (trz = 1,2,4-triazole; ox = oxalic acid) that featured positive H and negative O sites, and the suitable pore size, which exhibited remarkable one-step C₂H₄ purification performance directly from quaternary C₂H₄/C₂H₂/C₂H₆/CO₂ mixtures. The separation selectivities of C₂H₄ with respect to CO₂, C₂H₂, and C₂H₆ are 9.8, 2.6, and 2.5, higher than the sole adsorbent yet reported. Meanwhile, polymer grade C₂H₄ (≥99.95%) could be directly obtained with record C₂H₄ productivity of 1.5 mol kg⁻¹, over 10 times higher than that of the previous benchmark material. The deep insight into the binding behavior revealed by simulation studies offers important clues for the design of advanced adsorbent for multiple impurities capture.