Abstract
A radically different approach for separation of molecular mixtures is proposed. A judicious combination of levitation effect observed in zeolites with a counter intuitive Landauer blow torch effect provides driving forces for the two components of the mixture to move in opposite directions. Using nonequilibrium Monte Carlo simulations, we illustrate the efficacy of the method for separating real mixtures of both linear -pentane and its branched isomer, neopentane, and linear -hexane and its branched isomer, 2,2-dimethylbutane. The method yields several orders of magnitude improvement in separation factor and relative energy efficiency by using submicron zeolite column. The extremely high purity of the resulting single components makes the method best suited for green chemistry.
- Received 24 August 2019
- Revised 23 November 2019
- Accepted 28 May 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.255901
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