Scalable Green Synthesis of Robust Ultra‐Microporous Hofmann Clathrate Material with Record C3H6 Storage Density for Efficient C3H6/C3H8 Separation

Abstract

AbstractDeveloping porous materials for C3H6/C3H8 separation faces the challenge of merging excellent separation performance with high stability and easy scalability of synthesis. Herein, we report a robust Hofmann clathrate material (ZJU‐75a), featuring high‐density strong binding sites to achieve all the above requirements. ZJU‐75a adsorbs large amount of C3H6 with a record high storage density of 0.818 g mL−1, and concurrently shows high C3H6/C3H8 selectivity (54.2) at 296 K and 1 bar. Single‐crystal structure analysis unveil that the high‐density binding sites in ZJU‐75a not only provide much stronger interactions with C3H6 but also enable the dense packing of C3H6. Breakthrough experiments on gas mixtures afford both high separation factor of 14.7 and large C3H6 uptake (2.79 mmol g−1). This material is highly stable and can be easily produced at kilogram‐scale using a green synthesis method, making it as a benchmark material to address major challenges for industrial C3H6/C3H8 separation.