Microporous metal-organic frameworks with suitable pore spaces for acetylene storage and purification

Two isostructural metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) Cu 2 TPTC-Me and Cu 2 TPTC-OMe have been synthesized and characterized. The as-synthesized MOFs show good thermal stability and hydrothermal stability. With open metal sites, suitable pore spaces and functional groups to confine acetylene molecules in frameworks, both MOFs exhibit high gravimetric acetylene storage capacities: Cu 2 TPTC-Me has a gravimetric capacity of 203 cm 3  g −1 at 298 K and 1 bar, and Cu 2 TPTC-OMe has the highest gravimetric acetylene storage capacity ever reported with the capacity of 204 cm 3  g −1 under the same conditions. Furthermore, Cu 2 TPTC-Me possesses both high separation selectivities of C 2 H 2 /CH 4 and C 2 H 2 /CO 2 with the Henry law's selectivity of 60 and 12.7 at room temperature, respectively.