Complete separation of benzene-cyclohexene-cyclohexane mixtures via temperature-dependent molecular sieving by a flexible chain-like coordination polymer

Feng Xie, Lihang Chen, Eder Moisés Cedeño Morales, Saif Ullah, Yiwen Fu, Timo Thonhauser, Kui Tan (), Zongbi Bao () and Jing Li ()
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Feng Xie: Rutgers University
Lihang Chen: Zhejiang University
Eder Moisés Cedeño Morales: University of North Texas
Saif Ullah: Wake Forest University
Yiwen Fu: Zhejiang University
Timo Thonhauser: Wake Forest University
Kui Tan: University of North Texas
Zongbi Bao: Zhejiang University
Jing Li: Rutgers University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The separation and purification of C6 cyclic hydrocarbons (benzene, cyclohexene, cyclohexane) represent a critically important but energy intensive process. Developing adsorptive separation technique to replace thermally driven distillation processes holds great promise to significantly reduce energy consumption. Here we report a flexible one-dimensional coordination polymer as an efficient adsorbent to discriminate ternary C6 cyclic hydrocarbons via an ideal molecular sieving mechanism. The compound undergoes fully reversible structural transformation associated with removal/re-coordination of water molecules and between activated and hydrocarbon-loaded forms. It exhibits distinct temperature- and adsorbate-dependent adsorption behavior which facilitates the complete separation of benzene, cyclohexene and cyclohexane from their binary and ternary mixtures, with the record-high uptake ratios for C6H6/C6H12 and C6H10/C6H12 in vapor phase and highest binary and ternary selectivities in liquid phase. In situ infrared spectroscopic analysis and ab initio calculations provide insight into the host-guest interactions and their effect on the preferential adsorption and structural transformation.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46556-6

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