Tailoring the pore chemistry in porous aromatic frameworks for selective separation of acetylene from ethylene

Shuang Zhou; Zhaoli Liu; Panpan Zhang; Huazhen Rong; Tingting Ma; Fengchao Cui; Dongtao Liu; Xiaoqin Zou; Guangshan Zhu

doi:10.1039/d2sc03944c

Tailoring the pore chemistry in porous aromatic frameworks for selective separation of acetylene from ethylene

Chem Sci. 2022 Aug 20;13(37):11126-11131. doi: 10.1039/d2sc03944c. eCollection 2022 Sep 28.

Authors

Shuang Zhou¹, Zhaoli Liu¹, Panpan Zhang¹, Huazhen Rong¹, Tingting Ma¹, Fengchao Cui¹, Dongtao Liu¹, Xiaoqin Zou¹, Guangshan Zhu¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University Changchun Jilin 130024 P. R. China liudt737@nenu.edu.cn zouxq100@nenu.edu.cn zhugs100@nenu.edu.cn.

Abstract

The separation of acetylene from ethylene is a crucial process in the petrochemical industry, because even traces of acetylene impurities can poison the catalysts of ethylene polymerization. Herein, we synthesize a new family of 3D porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs), non-functionalized PAF-28, carbene-functionalized PAF-28 (cPAF-28) and imidazolium-functionalized PAF-28 (iPAF-28), via Sonogashira coupling reactions. These PAFs show high porosity and good thermal stability. Both cPAF-28 and iPAF-28 are proved to be good candidates for C₂H₂ adsorption, demonstrated by C₂H₂/C₂H₄ selectivity of 12.2 and 15.4, and C₂H₂ capacity of 48 cm³ g^-1 and 57 cm³ g^-1, which are significantly higher than those of non-functionalized PAF-28 (1.8, 37 cm³ g^-1). Furthermore, the cPAF-28 and iPAF-28 display good breakthrough performance and remarkable recyclability for the separation of the C₂H₂/C₂H₄ gas mixture. In addition, the C₂H₂/C₂H₄ adsorption sites are revealed by DFT calculations. This work sheds a new light on gas molecular recognition by tailoring the pore chemistry of PAFs.