Highly selective adsorption of ethylene over ethane in a MOF featuring the combination of open metal site and pi-complexation

The introduction of the combination of open metal site (OMS) and pi-complexation into MOF has led to very high ethylene-ethane adsorption selectivity at 318 K, as illustrated in the context of MIL-101-Cr-SO3Ag. The interactions with ethylene from both OMS and pi-complexation in MIL-101-Cr-SO3Ag have been investigated by in situ IR spectroscopic studies and computational calculations, which suggest that pi-complexation contributes dominantly to the high ethylene-ethane adsorption selectivity.