A Chemically Robust 3D Interpenetrated MOF Toward One-Step Methane Purification Along with Six Other Multipurpose Gas Separations.

The development of multipurpose adsorbents for highly efficient separation of various gas mixtures is of great importance; this task becomes highly challenging when the guest constituents have almost similar physicochemical properties. Although many adsorbents have been developed so far targeting flue and biogas separations, natural gas purification, and C2-hydrocarbon separations; multipurpose materials with high effectivities for all such gas mixtures separations by a single platform are elusive. Herein, we developed a new 3D interpenetrated hydro-stable MOF: IITKGP-21, which displayed impressive capability for C2H2/CH4, C2H4/CH4, C2H6/CH4, CO2/CH4, CO2/N2, and C2H2/C2H4 separations even at ambient conditions while maintaining an excellent trade-off between high sorption capacity and separation selectivity. Most importantly, breakthrough simulations not only unveiled the efficient separation capabilities in binary mixtures but also highlighted the effectivity of one-step methane purification with high purity from quaternary (C2H2/C2H4/C2H6/CH4) mixtures mimicking natural gas composition. Moreover, the facile bulk scalability, ease in accessibility, excellent recyclability, and framework stability further validated the multi-purpose gas separation capability of the developed framework.