In this work we study the effect of the functionalization of UiO-66(Zr) architecture with three different organic ligands: 2-aminoterephthalic acid (NH2-H2BDC), 2-nitroterephthalic acid (NO2-H2BDC) and 2-bromoterephthalic acid (Br-H2BDC) on the separation of hexane isomers by adsorption viewing the upgrading of TIP processes. The functionalized MOFs were synthesized and fully characterized applying established techniques: X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Infra-Red spectroscopy (IR), Thermo Gravimetric analysis (TGA) and nitrogen adsorption measurement. The potential of separation of the hexane isomers in the synthesized MOFs has been assessed by
ISBN: 988-84-695-3536-3 T12-7
performing several screening studies in a breakthrough apparatus exploiting the effect of temperature and partial pressure, demonstrating that functionalization changes sorption behavior improving the separation between 22DMB and the other isomers. Figure 2 shows an experimental breakthrough curve performed in a bed packed with amino functionalized UiO-66 (UiO-66_NH2) where it can be seen that this material is able to separate high RON di-branched isomers (22DMB) from the low RON parents mono (3MP) and linear (nHEX) ones