Separation of durene and prehnitene by metal-organic framework UiO-66

The adsorption performances of durene (DR) and prehnitene (PR) (molar ratio of 1:1) by MIL-53(Cr), UiO-66, ZIF-8 and Cu-BTC at 298.15 K were evaluated by adsorption experiments and simulation with Grand-canonical Monte Carlo method. UiO-66 exhibited the highest selectivity for DR and PR. Thus UiO-66 was selected and taken as the adsorbent subsequently. The adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics of DR and PR were studied in detail. Studies on kinetics showed that the data could be correlated well by the pseudo-second-order kinetic mode. The adsorption isotherms conformed to the Langmuir isotherm. The adsorption processes were spontaneous and exothermic. The adsorption capacity of DR was lower than that of PR according to the single component adsorption, while it showed the opposite trend in the competitive adsorption. The selectivity of DR and PR could reach 2.60 at 298.15 K. In conclusion, UiO-66 can be a feasible adsorbent to separate DR and PR for industrial application.