Chemical separations are of prime industrial importance; however, they consume a large portion of total industrial energy. Credibly, adsorbent-based separation methods offer the prospective to drastically lessen the energy demand of conventional energy-intensive separation processes. Prominently, a special class of porous materials, namely metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), are reasonably positioned to address various demanding separations in an energy-efficient manner. Out of a myriad of possible topologies for the construction of MOFs, face-transitive nets affording a sole type of window, preferably defined by three- or four-membered rings, can be regarded as ideal blueprints for the construction of MOFs for targeted separations. Intricate separations by MOFs based on some of these topologies are discussed, highlighting the effect of appropriate pore aperture and channel size with prerequisite functional groups on their separation performance. MOFs based on face-transitive nets offer great potential as effective fillers for the construction of practical mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) with improved separation properties over conventional polymeric membranes.

化学分离在工业上至关重要。但是，它们消耗了全部工业能源的很大一部分。令人信服的是，基于吸附剂的分离方法有望大大降低传统能源密集型分离工艺的能源需求。突出的是，一类特殊的多孔材料，即金属有机框架（MOF），处于合理位置，可以以节能的方式解决各种要求严格的分离问题。在MOF的众多可能拓扑结构中，提供唯一类型窗口（最好由三元或四元环定义）的面传递网可以视为针对目标分离的MOF构造的理想蓝图。讨论了基于这些拓扑中的某些MOF进行的复杂分离，强调适当的孔径和通道大小以及必备的官能团对其分离性能的影响。基于面部透射网的MOF具有巨大的潜力，可作为构建实用的混合基质膜（MMM）的有效填料，具有比传统聚合物膜更好的分离性能。