A Copper-Based Metal-Organic Framework for Selective Separation of C2 Hydrocarbons from Methane at Ambient Conditions: Experiment and Simulation.

C2 hydrocarbon separation from methane represents a technological challenge for natural gas upgrading. Herein, we report a new metal-organic framework, [CuL(DEF)]·2DEF (; HL = 4,4',4″,4‴-((1,1',1″,1‴)-benzene-1,2,4,5-tetrayltetrakis(ethene-2,1-diyl))tetrabenzoic acid; DEF = ,-diethylformamide; UNT = University of North Texas). The linker design will potentially increase the surface area and adsorption energy owing to π(hydrocarbon)-π(linker)/M interactions, hence increasing C2 hydrocarbon/CH separation.