Construction of silver functionalized porous aromatic framework for selective separation of ethylene over ethane

Abstract The development of an efficient ethylene-ethane separation technology is highly necessary and desirable. Selective adsorption of ethylene over ethane using porous aromatic has aroused considerable attention due to their merits of high porosity, excellent stability and tunable structure. We describe the synthesis of a silver functionalized material, PAF-1-PO3Ag2, using a Bronsted acidic porous aromatic framework via ion exchange. This material offers a higher ethylene capacity of 4.05 mmol/g than that for ethane (3.10 mmol/g). In addition, PAF-1-PO3Ag2 possesses a high C2H4/C2H6 selectivity of 4.8 at 298 K and 1 bar, thus making it a promising porous adsorbent in ethylene purification.