Separation and Purification Technology | 2021
Construction of saturated coordination titanium-based metal–organic framework for one-step C2H2/C2H6/C2H4 separation
Abstract
Abstract The slight differences between ternary components of C2 hydrocarbons make the separation of C2H2/C2H6/C2H4 mixtures one of the most challenging tasks in the petrochemical industry. In this study, a family of saturated coordination titanium-based metal–organic frameworks with high stability is constructed for one-step C2H4 purification. Single component adsorption measurements along with dynamic breakthrough experiments illustrated that these MOFs clearly exhibited large adsorption for C2H2 and C2H6 compared to C2H4, and could efficiently extract low concentrations of C2H6 and C2H2 from ternary C2H2/C2H6/C2H4 mixtures simultaneously. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations revealed the stronger affinity of the MOFs toward C2H6 and C2H2 compared to C2H4. Furthermore, the mostly intact structure of these MOFs after various examinations revealed their distinctive stability. The reasonably high C2H6 and C2H2 adsorption capacity, ultrahigh structural stability, and excellent separation performance rendered these materials good candidates for C2H4 purification from C2H2/C2H6/C2H4 mixtures in industry.