Although ethylene (C2H4) is one of the most critical chemicals used as a feedstock in artificial plastic chemistry fields, it is challenging to obtain high‐purity C2H4 gas without any trace ethane (C2H6) by the oil cracking process. Adsorptive separation using C2H6‐selective adsorbents is beneficial because it directly produces high‐purity C2H4 in a single step. Herein, Ni(IN)2 (HIN = isonicotinic acid) is computationally discovered as a promising adsorbent with the assistance of the multiscale high‐throughput computational screening workflow and Computation‐Ready, Experimental (CoRE) metal–organic framework (MOF) 2019 database. Ni(IN)2 is subsequently synthesized and tested to show the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) selectivity of 2.45 at 1 bar for a C2H6/C2H4 mixture (1:15), which is one of the top‐performing selectivity values reported for C2H6‐selective MOFs as well as excellent recyclability, suggesting that this material is a promising C2H6‐selective adsorbent. Process‐level simulation results based on experimental isotherms demonstrate that the material is one of the top materials reported to date for ethane/ethylene separation under the conditions considered in this work.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) gasification coupled with adsorbed natural gas (ANG) charging (LNG-ANG coupling) is an emerging strategy for efficient delivery of natural gas. However, the potential of LNG-ANG to attain the advanced research projects agency-energy (ARPA-E) target for onboard methane storage has not been fully investigated. In this work, large-scale computational screening is performed for 5446 metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and over 193 MOFs whose methane working capacities exceed the target (315 cm 3 (STP) cm −3 ) are identified. Furthermore, structure-performance relationships are realized under the LNG-ANG condition using a machine learning method. Additional molecular dynamics simulations are conducted to investigate the effects of the structural changes during temperature and pressure swings, further narrowing down the materials, and two synthetic targets are identified. The synthesized DUT-23(Cu) and DUT-23(Co) show higher working capacities (≈373 cm 3 (STP) cm −3 ) than that of any other porous material under ANG or LNG-ANG conditions, and excellent stability during cyclic LNG-ANG operation.
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