Separation of the ethane/ethylene mixture is one of the most important but challenging processes in the petrochemical industry owing to their closely resembling physical and chemical characteristics. The remarkable characteristics of customized pore aperture and functionality endow metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with great prospects in the adsorption separation of an ethane/ethylene mixture. However, large fixed-bed pressure drops, dustiness, transportation, and handling challenges of the powdered MOFs have largely restricted their large-scale industrial applications. Herein, we successfully prepared a silver-functionalized MOF pellet adsorbent using renewable carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as the binder and explored its feasibility for adsorptive separation of C₂H₄/C₂H₆ in the industry via both single-component adsorption isotherms and breakthrough experiments. Scanning electron microscopy and N₂ adsorption isotherms revealed the “solid bridge” formed by CMC between MIL-101-SO₃Ag@CMC pellets that tightly hold MOF crystals together while minimizing pore blockage. In addition, the pellets also attained excellent mechanical strength and stability sufficient to meet industrial application standards. Due to the formation of π-complexation between Ag(I) ions and the ethylene, MIL-101-SO₃Ag@CMC pellets demonstrated a moderate-high ethylene adsorption capacity of 2.23 mmol/g at 298 K and 1 bar and an excellent separation performance for ethylene/ethane. Significantly, the ideal adsorbed solution theory selectivity of the ethylene/ethane (50:50, v/v) mixture for pellets was 25.2 at 298 K and 10 kPa, far exceeding most reported adsorbents. Furthermore, breakthrough experiments and humid adsorption experiments verified that MIL-101-SO₃Ag@CMC can achieve high-purity ethylene (>99.9%) from the binary ethane/ethylene (50:50, v/v) mixture, indicating that MIL-101-SO₃Ag@CMC is a promising adsorbent with both efficient C₂H₄/C₂H₆ selectivity and excellent stability.

中文翻译：

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银官能化金属有机框架的成型用于通过乙烷有效分离乙烯

乙烷/乙烯混合物的分离是石化工业中最重要但最具挑战性的过程之一，因为它们的物理和化学特性非常相似。定制孔径和功能的显着特征赋予金属有机框架（MOF）在乙烷/乙烯混合物的吸附分离方面具有广阔的前景。然而，粉末状MOFs的大固定床压降、粉尘、运输和处理挑战在很大程度上限制了其大规模工业应用。在此，我们以可再生羧甲基纤维素（CMC）为粘合剂，成功制备了银功能化MOF颗粒吸附剂，并探索了其通过单组分吸附等温线和吸附分离C ₂ H ₄ /C ₂ H ₆在工业上的可行性。突破性的实验。扫描电子显微镜和 N _{2吸附等温线揭示了 CMC 在 MIL-101-SO 3} Ag@CMC 颗粒之间形成的“固体桥” ，将 MOF 晶体紧密地固定在一起，同时最大限度地减少孔隙堵塞。此外，颗粒还具有优异的机械强度和稳定性，足以满足工业应用标准。由于Ag(I)离子与乙烯之间形成π-络合，MIL-101-SO ₃ Ag@CMC颗粒在298 K和1 bar下表现出2.23 mmol/g的中高乙烯吸附能力和优异的吸附能力。乙烯/乙烷的分离性能。值得注意的是，乙烯/乙烷（50:50，v/v）混合物对于颗粒的理想吸附溶液理论选择性在 298 K 和 10 kPa 下为 25.2，远远超过大多数报道的吸附剂。此外，突破性实验和潮湿吸附实验验证了MIL-101-SO ₃ Ag@CMC可以从二元乙烷/乙烯（50:50，v/v）混合物中获得高纯度乙烯（>99.9%），这表明MIL -101-SO ₃ Ag@CMC是一种很有前景的吸附剂，具有高效的C ₂ H ₄ /C ₂ H ₆选择性和优异的稳定性。