A Robust Cage-Based Metal-Organic Framework Showing Ultrahigh SO2 Uptake for Efficient Removal of Trace SO2 from SO2/CO2 and SO2/CO2/N2 Mixtures

Removal of trace SO2 from an SO2-containing product is now receiving increasing attention. However, designing a robust porous adsorbent with high SO2 adsorption capacity and good SO2/CO2 selectivity, as well as validity under humid conditions, is still a challenging task. Herein, we report a porous cage-based metal-organic framework, namely ECUT-111, which contains two distinct cages with apertures of 5.4 and 10.2 angstrom, respectively, and shows high a BET of up to 1493 m(2)/g and a pore volume of 0.629 cm(3)/g. Impressively, ECUT-111 enables an ultrahigh SO2 uptake of up to 11.56 mmol/g, exceeding most reported top-performing adsorbents for such a use. More importantly, complete separation of trace SO2 from SO2/CO2 and SO2/CO2/N-2 mixtures, especially under humid conditions, and excellent recycle use were observed for ECUT-111, suggesting its superior application in desulfurization of SO2-containing products.

Automated summary

To address the challenge of removing trace SO2 from SO2-containing products, the porous cage-based metal-organic framework ECUT-111 exhibits high adsorption capacity, excellent selectivity, and effectiveness under humid conditions, especially showing outstanding performance in SO2/CO2 separation and recycle use.