Separation and purification of light hydrocarbon isomers in metal-organic frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are self-assembled using inorganic and organic units, exhibit considerable benefits, including ultrahigh specific surface area, higher porosity, adjustable pore size, and superior thermal and chemical stabilities, compared to traditional porous materials. These characteristics render MOFs highly promising in many fields. This review focuses on analyzing the relationship among the pore size, skeleton structure, separation selectivity, and adsorption capacity of porous MOFs in adsorption. Herein, recent advances in the development of MOFs for the separation and purification of light hydrocarbon isomers are highlighted. This recent progress and the separation mechanism of MOFs in the separation of light hydrocarbon isomers are summarized. Furthermore, the existing challenges and future directions in this field are presented.