Switching Kr/Xe Selectivity with Temperature in a Metal-Organic Framework

Krypton (Kr) and xenon (Xe) adsorption on two partially fluorinated metal organic frameworks (FMOFCu and FMOFZn) with different cavity size and topologies are reported. FMOFCu shows an inversion in sorption selectivity toward Kr at temperatures below 0 degrees C while FMOFZn does not. The 1D microtubes packed along the (101) direction connected through small bottleneck windows in FMOFCu appear to be the reason for this peculiar behavior. The FMOFCu shows an estimated Kr/Xe selectivity of 36 at 0.1 bar and 203 K.