Three-dimensional copper (II) metal–organic framework with open metal sites and anthracene nucleus for highly selective C2H2/CH4 and C2H2/CO2 gas separation at room temperature

•A new metal–organic framework (ZJU-26) was synthesized.•ZJU-26 displays large adsorption enthalpies of 32.7 kJ/mol for C2H2.•ZJU-26 exhibited high separation selectivity for C2H2/CH4 and C2H2/CO2.

A new three-dimensional micro-porous metal–organic framework Cu2(ADDI) (ZJU-26; H4ADDI = 5,5′-(anthracene-2,6-diyl) diisophthalic acid) with open metal sites and suitable pore space for their interactions with acetylene molecules was solvothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. ZJU-26 reveals a three-dimensional structure having hexagonal pores of about 5.0 Å along the c axis and irregular pores of about 3.4 × 8.5 Å2 along the a or b axis. Due to the introduction of anthracene ring do significantly enlarge pore size along a/b axis and enhance the interaction between MOF and acetylene, ZJU-26 indicates large adsorption enthalpies of 32.7 kJ/mol for C2H2 and moderately high acetylene uptake of 84 cm−1/g, highlighting ZJU-26 as the highly selective microporous metal organic framework for the C2H2/CH4 and C2H2/CO2 gas separation with separation selectivity of 45.9 and 12.5 at room temperature.

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