Synergy of pore size and silanols in an –SVR-type zeolite for efficient dynamic benzene/cyclohexane separation

作者：Yaqi Fan, Xiaomin Tang, Junyi Hu, Ye Ma, Jiabao Yang, Fengqing Liu, Xianfeng Yi, Zhiqiang Liu, Lijuan Song, Anmin Zheng, Yanhang Ma · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-024-52385-4 · 被引用次数：18 · 研究领域：Zeolite Catalysis and Synthesis、Mesoporous Materials and Catalysis、Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications

The efficient purification of cyclohexane is critical, serving as an essential feedstock to produce resins, nylon fibers and pharmaceutical intermediates. However, efficient purification remains a challenging task due to the similarity of cyclohexane and benzene molecules in terms of size and boiling point. In this work, we reported on the synergy of pore size and silanols inside an -SVR-type zeolite for the efficient production of ultrapure cyclohexane (benzene <1 ppm) from benzene/cyclohexane mixture. Under ambient conditions, the SSZ-74 zeolite demonstrated the highest mass-based productivity of 14.5 L/kg for ultrapure cyclohexane among several common zeolites with a considerable dynamic selectivity of ~9.5. The separation ability was evaluated through density functional theory (DFT) calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. The unique ordered silanols inside the zeolite frameworks demonstrated strong but reversible interactions with benzene through SiOH…π interactions, as revealed by in situ Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectra.