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

The advancement of high-value CH4 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 C3H8/CH4 and C2H6/CH4 mixtures. The findings reveal an outstanding C3H8 adsorption capacity of 68 cm3 g-1 and a moderate C2H6 adsorption rate of 42 cm3 g-1, with a notably lower CH4 adsorption rate of 11 cm3 g-1. Noteworthy is the exceptional selectivity of ZJNU-402 for C3H8/CH4 and C2H6/CH4, 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 CH4 molecules, C3H8 and C2H6 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 C3H8/C2H6/CH4 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.