Styrene Purification by Guest-Induced Restructuring of Pillar[6]arene

Jie, Kecheng, Liu, M ORCID: 0000-0003-0008-1480, Zhou, Y, Llittle, MA, Bonakala, Satyanarayana, Chong, SY ORCID: 0000-0002-3095-875X, Stephenson, A, Chen, L, Huang, Feihe and Cooper, AI ORCID: 0000-0003-0201-1021 (2017) Styrene Purification by Guest-Induced Restructuring of Pillar[6]arene Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139 (8). pp. 2908-2911. ISSN 0002-7863, 1520-5126

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Abstract

The separation of styrene (St) and ethylbenzene (EB) mixtures is important in the chemical industry. Traditionally, this is done using energy-intensive vacuum distillation columns. Adsorptive separation is an alternative approach. Here, we explore the St and EB adsorption selectivity of two pillar-shaped macrocyclic pillar[n]arenes (EtP5 and EtP6; n  5 and 6). Both crystalline and amorphous EtP6 can capture St from a St-EB mixture with remarkably high selectivity. We show that EtP6 can be used to separate St from a 50:50 v/v St:EB mixture, yielding in a single adsorption cycle St with a purity of > 99 %. Single crystal structures, powder X-ray diffraction patterns and molecular simulations all suggest that this selectivity is due to a guest-induced structural change in EtP6 rather than a simple cavity/pore size effect. This restructuring means that the material ‘self-heals’ upon each recrystallization, and St separation can be carried out over multiple cycles with no loss of performance.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	mixtures, physical and chemical processes, cavities, adsorption, moelcules
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2017 10:57
Last Modified:	01 Mar 2026 05:37
DOI:	10.1021/jacs.6b13300
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3005623
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