The separation of highly pure p-xylene (pX) from xylene isomers is an industrially important and challenging issue. Although simulated moving bed (SMB) processes using faujasite zeolites are currently used for pX separation, developing novel adsorbents with improved pX separation performances is strongly needed. In this study, an aluminum-based metal–organic framework (MOF), MIL-120(Al) with 1-D channels of approximately 7 Å, exhibited considerably high pX selectivities compared to xylene isomers (α_pX/oX: ∼31; α_pX/mX: ∼17; α_pX/EB: ∼7.5; α_pX/OME: ∼11), which are superior to reported values for other MOFs and zeolites under similar conditions. Such high selectivities may originate from the proper pore shape and size of MIL-120(Al). MIL-120(Al) also showed good cyclic adsorption properties as well as superior hydrothermal and chemical stabilities. Finally, a dynamic simulation showed that MIL-120(Al) could achieve approximately complete separation of pX from a xylene isomer mixture using an SMB process.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2022.10.021