Efficient CO2/CO separation through channel confinements in an amino-coordinated metal-organic framework

There are still great challenges in developing promise adsorbents to achieve high CO2/CO selectivity associated with low energy consume. Here, we report an amino-coordinated metal-organic framework (ZJU-198) featuring unique overlapping channels that allow the transport of CO2 molecules, but efficiently exclude CO molecules. It thus shows a high CO2 adsorption (3.50 mmol/g) and very high adsorptive selectivity (20.5) for 50/50 CO2/CO separation at ambient conditions, which are superior to most of developed adsorbents. Moreover, the moderate host-guest affinity leads to the low regeneration cost of ZJU-198, thus offering its great potential for refining the industrial syngas.