The separation of light hydrocarbon mixtures is one of the most important yet energy-intensive processes in the petrochemical industry. Solid adsorbent materials could potentially not only lower energy costs but also offer higher efficiency as an alternative means to traditionally energy-intensive separation methods such as distillation, absorption, and extraction. Here, rational augmentation of the metal–organic framework, Mg-MOF-74, was designed in silico to enhance kinetic selectivity of the material, while imposing a minimal reduction in the adsorption working capacities for light hydrocarbons. From the computer-aided design, we synthesized 2,4,6-tri(4-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine-inserted Mg-MOF-74 (tpt-Mg-MOF-74) and successfully characterized the structure. This material can kinetically separate ethane/propane with an unprecedented diffusive selectivity of ∼49 owing to its distinctive pore size and provides evidence that metal–organic framework need not sacrifice pore volume for enhanced kinetic selectivity in separation applications.

中文翻译：

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合理调整 MOF-74 中超微孔尺寸用于轻烃的尺寸选择性分离

轻烃混合物的分离是石化工业中最重要但能源密集型的过程之一。固体吸附材料不仅可以潜在地降低能源成本，还可以提供更高的效率，作为传统能源密集型分离方法（如蒸馏、吸收和提取）的替代方法。在这里，金属-有机骨架 Mg-MOF-74 的合理增强是在计算机上设计的，以提高材料的动力学选择性，同时对轻烃的吸附工作能力的降低最小。从计算机辅助设计，我们合成了 2,4,6-tri(4-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine-inserted Mg-MOF-74 (tpt-Mg-MOF-74) 并成功表征了结构.