Selective adsorption and separation of C 2 hydrocarbons in a "flexible-robust" metal-organic framework based on a guest-dependent gate-opening effect.

The selective adsorption/separation of C-2 hydrocarbons has been realized in a "flexible-robust" MOF, Zn-2(Atz)(2)Ox. Owing to the distinctive guest-dependent multistep adsorption behaviors and suitable guest-framework interactions, this MOF shows outstanding separation performance for C2H2/C2H4 mixtures in a wide range of temperature confirmed by a column breakthrough experiment.