A Doubly Interpenetrated Metal–Organic Framework with Open Metal Sites and Suitable Pore Sizes for Highly Selective Separation of Small Hydrocarbons at Room Temperature

To immobilize open
Cu2+ sites and tune suitable pore
spaces, we have realized a doubly interpenetrated metal–organic
framework (MOF) [Cu2L­(H2O)2]·(DMF)6·H2O (ZJU-30, ZJU = Zhejiang
University; H4L = biphenyl-3,3′,5,5′-tetra-(phenyl-4-carboxylic)
acid; DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide)
for the highly selective separation of C2 hydrocarbons
over C1 methane with the Henry law’s selectivities
from 9.58 to 29.8 in the temperature range from 273 to 298 K.