Efficient C 2 H 6 /C 2 H 4 adsorption separation by a microporous heterometal-organic framework.

Purification of ethylene (C2 H4 ) is an essential and energy-intensive process in the petrochemical industry. Adsorption separation using ethane (C2 H6 )-selective porous adsorbents is a highly efficient and straightforward method for obtaining polymer-grade C2 H4 from a binary C2 H6 /C2 H4 mixture. However, the design and construction of C2 H6 -selective adsorbents are very challenging tasks. Herein, we demonstrate a microporous heterometal-organic framework, CuIn(ina)4 , can preferentially enrich C2 H6 than C2 H4 . Experimental results revealed that CuIn(ina)4 exhibited remarkable separation performance for the C2 H6 /C2 H4 mixture with a high C2 H6 loading capacity (3.3 mmol/g), high IAST selectivity (2.3) and separation potential (1578 mmol/L for equimolar C2 H6 /C2 H4 mixture) under ambient conditions. The effectiveness of CuIn(ina)4 for C2 H6 /C2 H4 adsorption separation was confirmed by theoretical calculations and breakthrough experiments.