The purification of light olefins is one of the most important chemical separations globally and consumes large amounts of energy. Porous materials have the capability to improve the efficiency of this process by acting as solid, regenerable adsorbents. However, to develop translational systems, the underlying mechanisms of adsorption in porous materials must be fully understood. Herein, we report the adsorption and dynamic separation of C₂ and C₃ hydrocarbons in the metal–organic framework MFM-300(In), which exhibits excellent performance in the separation of mixtures of ethane/ethylene and propyne/propylene. Unusually selective adsorption of ethane over ethylene at low pressure is observed, resulting in selective retention of ethane from a mixture of ethylene/ethane, thus demonstrating its potential for a one-step purification of ethylene (purity > 99.9%). In situ neutron powder diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering reveal the preferred adsorption domains and host–guest binding dynamics of adsorption of C₂ and C₃ hydrocarbons in MFM-300(In).

中文翻译：

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MFM-300(In) 中轻烃的超分子结合和分离的直接可视化

轻质烯烃的提纯是全球最重要的化学分离之一，消耗大量能源。多孔材料能够通过充当固体、可再生吸附剂来提高该过程的效率。然而，要开发平移系统，必须充分了解多孔材料中吸附的潜在机制。_{在此，我们报告了 C 2}和 C ₃的吸附和动态分离金属有机骨架 MFM-300(In) 中的碳氢化合物，在乙烷/乙烯和丙炔/丙烯混合物的分离中表现出优异的性能。观察到在低压下乙烷在乙烯上的异常选择性吸附，导致乙烷从乙烯/乙烷混合物中选择性保留，从而证明了其在乙烯一步纯化方面的潜力（纯度 > 99.9%）。原位中子粉末衍射和非弹性中子散射揭示了 C ₂和 C ₃烃在 MFM-300(In)中吸附的首选吸附域和主客体结合动力学。