Abstract
Here we present our progress in the development of functional metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to address some energy-intensive separations.
It is to be noted that various key gas/vapors separations are accomplished using energy intensive processes as exemplified by the olefin/paraffin separation, an essential separation in chemical industry.
Successful practice of reticular chemistry had afforded the fabrication of various thermal- and hydrolytic-stable MOFs with controlled pore-aperture size and allowing effective separation of various gas or vapors pairs.
In the case of chemically stable fluorinated MOF material (NbOFFIVE-1-Ni, also referred to as KAUST-7), the restricted MOF window resulted in the selective molecular exclusion of propane from propylene at atmospheric pressure, as evidenced by multiple cyclic mixed-gas adsorption and calorimetric studies.
The deliberate control of the pore-aperture size of various selected MOFs and its impact on various important separations will be discussed.