Decorated Traditional Zeolites with Subunits of Metal–Organic Frameworks for CH4/N2 Separation

Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) materials are promising materials for gas separation, but their application still faces various challenges. A strategy is now reported for introducing subunits of MOFs into traditional zeolite frameworks to obtain applicable adsorbents with advantages of both zeolites and MOFs. The subunits of ZIFs were introduced into zeolite Y and zeolite ZSM-5 for CH4 /N2 separation. Both the molecular simulation and experimental results validated that the IAST CH4 /N2 selectivity of the resulting samples greatly improved (above 8, at 100 kPa and 25 °C) with the incorporation of ZIF subunits into zeolites structure, and the selectivities were obviously higher than that of zeolites and even better than that of ZIFs. This strategy not only gave rise to an efficient adsorbent for CH4 /N2 separation but also provided ideas for design of other adsorption and separation materials.