Ethane/ethene separation turned on its head: Selective ethane adsorption on the metal-organic framework ZIF-7 through a gate-opening mechanism

Canan Gücüyener, Johan Van Den Bergh, Jorge Gascon*, Freek Kapteijn

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

648 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ethane is selectively adsorbed over ethylene in their mixtures on the zeolite imidazolate framework ZIF-7. In packed columns, this results in the direct production of pure ethylene. This gas-phase separation is attributed to a gate-opening effect in which specific threshold pressures control the uptake and release of individual molecules. These threshold pressures differ for the different molecules, leaving a window of selective uptake operation. This phenomenon makes ZIF-7 a perfect candidate for the separation of olefins from paraffins, since in contrast to most microporous materials, the paraffin is selectively adsorbed. Mixture adsorption, as studied by breakthrough experiments, demonstrates that gate-opening effects can be effectively used to separate molecules of very similar size.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)17704-17706
Number of pages3
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume132
Issue number50
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 22 2010
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Catalysis
  • General Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Colloid and Surface Chemistry

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