Ultramicroporous material based parallel and extended paraffin nano-trap for benchmark olefin purification

Selective paraffin capture from olefin/paraffin mixtures could afford high-purity olefins directly, but suffers from the issues of low separation selectivity and olefin productivity. Herein, we report an ultramicroporous material (PCP-IPA) with parallel-aligned linearly extending isophthalic acid units along the one-dimensional channel, realizing the efficient production of ultra-high purity C(2)H(4) and C(3)H(6) (99.99%). The periodically expanded and parallel-aligned aromatic-based units served as a paraffin nano-trap to contact with the exposed hydrogen atoms of both C(2)H(6) and C(3)H(8), as demonstrated by the simulation studies. PCP-IPA exhibits record separation selectivity of 2.48 and separation potential of 1.20 mol/L for C(3)H(8)/C(3)H(6) (50/50) mixture, meanwhile the excellent C(2)H(6)/C(2)H(4) mixture separation performance. Ultra-high purity C(3)H(6) (99.99%) and C(2)H(4) (99.99%) can be directly obtained through fixed-bed column from C(3)H(8)/C(3)H(6) and C(2)H(6)/C(2)H(4) mixtures, respectively. The record C(3)H(6) productivity is up to 15.23 L/kg from the equimolar of C(3)H(8)/C(3)H(6), which is 3.85 times of the previous benchmark material, demonstrating its great potential for those important industrial separations.