Ethane/Ethylene Separation in a Metal-Organic Framework with Iron-Peroxo Sites

Published

October 26, 2018

Author(s)

Libo Li, Rui-Biao Lin, Rajamani Krishna, Hao Li, Shengchang Xiang, Hui Wu, Jinping Li, Wei Zhou, Banglin Chen

Abstract

The separation of ethane from its corresponding ethylene is a very important challenging and energy-intensive process in the chemical industry. Herein we report a microporous metal-organic framework Fe₂(O₂)(dobdc) (dobdc^4-: 2,5-dioxido-1,4-benzenedicarboxylate) with Fe-peroxo sites for the preferential binding of ethane over ethylene and thus highly selective separation of C₂H₆/C₂H₄. Neutron powder diffraction studies and theoretical calculations demonstrate the key role of E-peroxo sites for the recognition of ethane. The high performance of Fe₂(O6d2^)(dobdc) for the ethane/ethylene separation has been validated by gas sorption isotherms, ideal adsorbed solution theory calculations, simulated and experimental breakthrough curves. Through a fixed-bed column packed with this porous material, polymer-grade of ethylene (99.99%) can be straightforwardly produced from ethane/ethylene mixtures during the first adsorption cycle, demonstrating its enormous potential for this very important industrial separation with low energy cost at ambient conditions.

Citation

Science/AAAS

Volume

2

Issue

3

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Porous Materials, Gas Separation

Citation

Li, L. , Lin, R. , Krishna, R. , Li, H. , Xiang, S. , Wu, H. , Li, J. , Zhou, W. and Chen, B. (2018), Ethane/Ethylene Separation in a Metal-Organic Framework with Iron-Peroxo Sites, Science/AAAS, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926720 (Accessed October 14, 2025)