Citation: He Zhao, Baiyang Fan, Siwen Hu, Xingliang Liu, Bo Tang, Pengchong Xue. Guest-triggered gate-opening of flexible hydrogen-bonded framework for separation of styrene and ethylbenzene[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2025, 36(10): 111005. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111005 shu

Guest-triggered gate-opening of flexible hydrogen-bonded framework for separation of styrene and ethylbenzene

He Zhao ^a ,
Baiyang Fan ^a ,
Siwen Hu ^a ,
Xingliang Liu ^b ,
Bo Tang ^a ,
Pengchong Xue ^{a, *,}

a.
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Structure and Performance for Functional Molecules, College of Chemistry, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
b.
School of Chemical Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, China

hxxyxpc@tjnu.edu.cn

Received Date: 3 December 2024
Revised Date: 11 February 2025
Accepted Date: 26 February 2025
Available Online: 27 February 2025

Figures(4)

The efficient separation of styrene (ST) and ethylbenzene (EB) remains a significant challenge in the petrochemical industry due to their similar physical properties and kinetic molecular sizes. In this study, we cleverly utilized the voids of a fluorescent flexible hydrogen-bonded organic framework (X-HOF-10) constructed from a pure organic phenothiazine derivative with three cyano groups (PTTCN) to selectively adsorb and separate ST and EB based on their slight size difference. Single crystal structure analysis and fluorescence spectra reveal that the adsorption process of ST involves a gate-opening mechanism accompanied by a fluorescent color switch behavior. Upon simple heating, ST can be released from the voids through a gate-closing process. Conversely, exposure to EB vapor does not promote X-HOF-10a to adsorb EB due to its slightly larger size in comparison with ST, facilitating a single crystal to single crystal transition, leading to the formation of a new non-porous crystal without EB. Under equimolar vapor condition, X-HOF-10a transforms into X-HOF-10 rather than X-HOF-11 owing to the superior stability of X-HOF-10 over X-HOF-11, accompanied by selective adsorption of ST. The purity of ST can reach 92% after release from the framework, which further increases to over 98% when exposed to the mixed vapor containing 90% ST. Additionally, this HOF material exhibits recyclability without any discernible loss in performance.
- Hydrogen-bonded framework,
- Separation,
- Styrene,
- Ethylbenzene,
- Gate-open
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