The safe storage of flammable gases, such as acetylene, is essential for current industrial purposes. However, the narrow pressure (P) and temperature range required for the industrial use of pure acetylene (100 < P < 200 kPa at 298 K) and its explosive behaviour at higher pressures make its storage and release challenging. Flexible metal–organic frameworks that exhibit a gated adsorption/desorption behaviour—in which guest uptake and release occur above threshold pressures, usually accompanied by framework deformations—have shown promise as storage adsorbents. Herein, the pressures for gas uptake and release of a series of zinc-based mixed-ligand catenated metal–organic frameworks were controlled by decorating its ligands with two different functional groups and changing their ratio. This affects the deformation energy of the framework, which in turn controls the gated behaviour. The materials offer good performances for acetylene storage with a usable capacity of ~90 v/v (77% of the overall amount) at 298 K and under a practical pressure range (100–150 kPa).

乙炔等易燃气体的安全储存对于当前的工业用途至关重要。然而，纯乙炔的工业使用所需 的狭窄压力（ P ）和温度范围（100 < P < 200 kPa at 298 K) 及其在较高压力下的爆炸行为使其储存和释放具有挑战性。表现出门控吸附/解吸行为的柔性金属有机框架——其中客体的吸收和释放发生在阈值压力以上，通常伴随着框架变形——已显示出作为存储吸附剂的前景。在此，通过用两种不同的官能团装饰其配体并改变它们的比例来控制一系列锌基混合配体链状金属有机框架的气体吸收和释放压力。这会影响框架的变形能量，进而控制门控行为。