Copper and nickel doped MIL-101: Highly efficient adsorbents for separation of ethylene-ethane mixture

In the present study, MIL-101 doped with copper and nickel nano particles were successfully synthesized and applied as promising adsorbents for separation of ethylene/ethane mixture. The as-synthesized adsorbents were characterized using XRD, N-2 adsorption-desorption and FESEM analysis. Afterward, the single-component isotherms of C2H4 and C2H6 were measured with manometric adsorption apparatus at temperatures of 293, 303, 323 and 343 K and pressures from atmospheric to 2 bar. The results showed that MIL-101 loaded with Cu nano particles has higher adsorption capacity (2.78 mmol/g) as well as higher selectivity (12.9) toward ethylene when compared to MIL-101 and MIL-101 loaded with Ni nanoparticles. It was found that Sips model could better predict the experimental data than the Langmuir and Freundlich models. Finally, to investigate the performance of adsorbents in the selective separation of ethylene/ethane mixtures with different compositions, Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory (IAST) method was used. (c) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.