Highly effective H₂/D₂ separation in a stable Cu-based metal-organic framework

A three-dimensional copper metal-organic framework with the rare chabazite (CHA) topology namely FJI-Y11 has been constructed with flexibly carboxylic ligand 5,5'-[(1,4-phenylenebis(methylene))bis(oxy)]diisophthalic acid (H₄L). FJI-Y11 exhibits high water stability with the pH range from 2 to 12 at temperature as high as 373 K. Importantly, FJI-Y11 also shows high efficiency of hydrogen isotope separation using dynamic column breakthrough experiments under atmospheric pressure at 77 K. Attributed to its excellent structural stability, FJI-Y11 possesses good regenerated performance and maintains high separation efficiency after three cycles of breakthrough experiments.