Separation of 2-Phenylethanol from 1-Phenyl-2-propanol and 2-Ethylphe-nol by metal-organic framework functionalized with amino groups

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with sensitive nanospace and selective binding sites are widely used to discriminate the subtle structural. Adsorption performances of 2-Phenylethanol, 1-Phenyl-2-propanol, and 2-Ethylphenol on MOFs were studied in this paper. Eight MOFs were prepared hydrothermally and NH2-UiO-66(1) was chosen as the subsequent adsorbent based on the larger selectivity for both 1-Phenyl-2-propanol/2-Phenylethanol and 2-Ethylphenol/2-Phenylethanol. Studies on adsorption kinetics showed that pseudo-first-order model was suitable for adsorption performances of 1-Phenyl-2-propanol on NH2-UiO-66(1), while pseudo-second-order model was suitable for both 2-Phenylethanol and 2-Ethylphenol. The adsorption isotherm revealed that Langmuir model was suitable for 1-Phenyl-2-propanol, 2-Ethylphenol, and 2-Phenylethanol. Thermodynamic parameters including Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy indicated that adsorption of 1-Phenyl-2-propanol on NH2-UiO-66(1) was a spontaneous and exothermic physisorption process, while those of 2-Ethylphenol and 2Phenylethanol were spontaneous and endothermic physisorption processes. The adsorption process indicated that the separation of 2-Phenylethanol from 1-Phenyl-2-propanol and 2-Ethylphenol on NH2-UiO-66(1) was due to the Lewis acid-base interactions and sieving effect. NH2-UiO-66(1) was also treated the simulated enriched 2Phenylethanol solutions and 99.5% 2-Phenylethanol was obtained. In conclusion, NH2-UiO-66(1) can be a feasible adsorbent to separate 2-Phenylethanol from 1-Phenyl-2-propanol and 2-Ethylphenol for industrial application.