Xylene Recognition in Flexible Porous Coordination Polymer by Guest-Dependent Structural Transition

Xylene isomers are crucial chemical intermediates in great demand worldwide; the almost identical physicochemical properties render their current separation approach energy consuming. In this study, we utilized soft porous coordination polymer (PCP)’s isomer-specific structural transformation, realizing o-xylene (oX) recognition/separation from binary and ternary isomer mixtures. This PCP has a flexible structure that contains aromatic pendant groups, which both work as recognition sites induce flexibility of global framework. The exhibits guest-triggered “breathing”-type changes, accompanied by rearrangement intraframework π–π interaction. By rebuilding stacking with species, discriminated oX other its specific guest-loading configuration separated mixture via selective adsorption. xylene-selective property is dependent on solvent; diluted hexane solution, favors p-xylene (pX) uptake. results combined crystallographic analyses revealed effect selectivity xylene transition demonstrated potential versatile adsorptive medium for challenging separations.