Highly selective adsorption of light hydrocarbons in a HKUST-like MOF constructed from spirobifluorene-based octacarboxylate ligand by a substitution strategy

Metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)with HKUST-like tbo structures have been paid specific attention for gas sorption and separation because of their specific pore features.According to the geometric similarity of spirobifluorene and[Cu_(2)(O_(2)CR)_(4)]paddlewheel secondary building units(Cu_(2)SBUs)in HKUST-1,we attempted to rationally construct a HKUST-like MOF by a substitution strategy.Using a judiciously designed octatopic carboxylate ligand,a copper-organic framework,JUC-220,was synthesized.The crystals of JUC-220 exhibited characteristic features in cubic with disorder,possibly due to the disorder substitution and high symmetry of tbo topology.Two related HKUST-like structure models were considered.Thanks to the suitable pore size and specific pore shapes,the adsorption selectivities of JUC-220 for C_(3)H_(8)/CH_(4)(5/85)and C_(2)H_(6)/CH_(4)(10/85)gas mixtures were as high as 736 and 46 respectively at 298 K and 1 bar.Specially,JUC-220 exhibited excellent trace adsorption performance of C_(3)H_(8)and C_(2)H_(6)as well as reverse adsorption behavior of C_(2)H_(6)/C_(2)H_(4).Thus,JUC-220 serves as an example of HKUST-like MOF with disorder for light hydrocarbons separation and the implementation of substitution which can be used to explore more porous MOFs.