Multifunctional Petrochemical Separation Adsorbent Based on
Micro-Regulation of Cu-BTC Channel
Abstract
Separating hydrocarbons from refinery dry gas is a fundamental demand in
petrochemical industry. Metal-Organic Frameworks are a class of
promising advanced adsorbents, yet better moisture stability and higher
adsorptive selectivity are still needed to meet the requirement of
petrochemical industry. Herein, a multifunctional adsorbent urea@Cu-BTC
was prepared from cheap building blocks at room temperature, which
exhibits generally enhanced adsorptive separation performance towards
CO2/CH4, CO2/N2, C3H6/C3H8, C2H4/C2H6, CH4/N2 separation. More
interestingly, urea@Cu-BTC shows significantly enhanced stability
against moisture. Combining structural characterization and molecular
simulation, the improved adsorptive separation performance was ascribed
to the enhanced confinement from the creation of ultra-micro porosity
due to the presence of urea molecule in the microporous channel of
Cu-BTC. The major components in refinery dry gas can be well separated
using a column filled with urea@Cu-BTC, which demonstrates that
micro-regulating the channel of MOFs is a feasible strategy for
preparing high performance petrochemical adsorbents.