Rigid Nanoporous Urea-Based Covalent Triazine Frameworks for C2/C1 and CO2/CH4 Gas Separation

Chidharth Krishnaraj; Himanshu Sekhar Jena; Florence Lecoeuvre; Karen Leus; Pascal Van Der Voort

doi:10.3390/molecules26123670

Rigid Nanoporous Urea-Based Covalent Triazine Frameworks for C2/C1 and CO₂/CH₄ Gas Separation

Molecules. 2021 Jun 16;26(12):3670. doi: 10.3390/molecules26123670.

Authors

Chidharth Krishnaraj¹, Himanshu Sekhar Jena¹, Florence Lecoeuvre¹, Karen Leus¹, Pascal Van Der Voort¹

Affiliation

¹ COMOC, Center for Ordered Materials, Organometallics and Catalysis, Department of Chemistry, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium.

Abstract

C2/C1 hydrocarbon separation is an important industrial process that relies on energy-intensive cryogenic distillation methods. The use of porous adsorbents to selectively separate these gases is a viable alternative. Highly stable covalent triazine frameworks (urea-CTFs) have been synthesized using 1,3-bis(4-cyanophenyl)urea. Urea-CTFs exhibited gas uptakes of C₂H₂ (3.86 mmol/g) and C₂H₄ (2.92 mmol/g) at 273 K and 1 bar and is selective over CH₄. Breakthrough simulations show the potential of urea-CTFs for C2/C1 separation.

Keywords: C2/C1 hydrocarbon separation; C2H2/CH4; CO2/CH4; covalent organic frameworks; covalent triazine frameworks; gas separation.