Low-temperature Cu(I) loading on a mesoporous Metal–Organic framework for adsorptive separation of C3H6/C3H8 mixtures

Abstract We incorporated Cu(I) ions into a mesoporous metal–organic framework (MOF) through facile method involving CuCl 2 loading, followed by reduction using Na 2 SO 3 as reducing agent. The successful incorporation of Cu(I) ions was supported by various methods such as TEM-EDS, XPS and ICP-AES. Remarkably, the Cu(I) incorporation resulted in 4.2 times higher C 3 H 6 /C 3 H 8 selectivity compared with the parent MOF as well as large C 3 H 6 working capacity (1.3 mmol/g) at 10–100 kPa. Moreover, the Cu(I)-loaded MOF showed efficient separation of C 3 H 6 from C 3 H 8 under dynamic mixture flow conditions, easy regeneration under mild conditions, and good stability under atmospheric conditions.