近日，浙江大学化学系黄飞鹤教授课题组利用非多孔自适应柱芳烃晶体的主客体识别原理，成功实现了2-甲基呋喃和2,5-二甲基呋喃的高效分离。 相关论文于2020年11月9日发表在《美国化学会志》上。

2-甲基呋喃（MeF）和2,5-二甲基呋喃（DMeF）混合物的分离在化学工业中非常重要。在该研究中，课题组通过由全乙烷化的柱[5]芳烃（EtP5）、全乙烷化的柱[6]芳烃（EtP6）、全溴乙烷化的柱[5]芳烃（BrP5）和全溴乙烷化的柱[6]芳烃（BrP6）组成的非多孔自适应晶体（NAC）实现了这一目标。他们发现EtP6和BrP5对MeF表现出很好的选择性，在MeF和DMeF体积比为50:50的蒸汽中，MeF的分离纯度分别达到了94.0%和96.3%.

通过进一步研究发现，单晶结构表明，这些材料不同的选择性来自主客体分子间不同的热力学稳定性和结合模式。循环实验表明，这些晶体可以重复循环使用五次以上而不发生性能下降。

附：英文原文

Title: Selective Separation of Methylfuran and Dimethylfuran by Nonporous Adaptive Crystals of Pillararenes

Author: Yitao Wu, Jiong Zhou, Errui Li, Mengbin Wang, Kecheng Jie, Huangtianzhi Zhu, Feihe Huang

Issue&Volume: November 9, 2020

Abstract: The separation of 2-methylfuran (MeF) and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMeF) mixtures is very important in the chemical industry. Herein, we offer a novel strategy for the separation of MeF and DMeF using nonporous adaptive crystals (NACs) of perethylated pillar[5]arene (EtP5), perethylated pillar[6]arene (EtP6), perbromoethylated pillar[5]arene (BrP5), and perbromoethylated pillar[6]arene (BrP6). We find that the crystals of EtP6 and BrP5 show remarkable selectivities for MeF in a 50:50 (v/v) MeF:DMeF mixture vapor, yielding purities of 94.0 and 96.3%, respectively. Single-crystal structures reveal that these different selectivities come from the different thermodynamic stabilities and binding modes of the host–guest complexes. Cycling experiments demonstrate that these crystals can be reused more than five cycles without loss of performance.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c09757

Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c09757