Efficient Separation of Ethylene from Acetylene/Ethylene Mixtures by a Flexible-Robust Metal-Organic Framework

Published

September 24, 2017

Author(s)

Libo Li, Rui-Biao Lin, Rajamani Krishna, Xiaoqing Wang, Bin Li, Hui Wu, Jinping Li, Wei Zhou, Banglin Chen

Abstract

During the production of polymer-grade ethylene, trace amounts of acetylene (about 1%) in the ethylene feed needs to be reduced to 40 parts per million (ppm). We herein report a metal-organic framework (MOF) of flexible-robust nature for efficient removal of acetylene from acetylene/ethylene mixture to meet such a challening separation need. Neutron powder diffraction studies reveal that the specific binding sites and unique pore structure collectively enable this MOF (ELM-12) to efficiently and selectively adsorb acetylene over ethylene under ambient conditions, making it feasible for this challenging separation. The purity of obtained ethylene is over 99.999% as demonstrated by experimental breakthrough curves of 1/99 acetylene/ethylene mixture.

Citation

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Volume

5

Issue

36

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

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Keywords

Gas separation, Porous material

Citation

Li, L. , Lin, R. , Krishna, R. , Wang, X. , Li, B. , Wu, H. , Li, J. , Zhou, W. and Chen, B. (2017), Efficient Separation of Ethylene from Acetylene/Ethylene Mixtures by a Flexible-Robust Metal-Organic Framework, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=923795 (Accessed November 3, 2025)