Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants have a significant impact on air quality. Benzene is one of the most toxic VOCs, posing risks to human health and the environment. Methods to capture benzene and other hazardous VOCs in trace concentrations can help mitigate these risks. Now, a team of researchers from the Univ. of Manchester has developed a material that not only captures benzene at low pressures, but can also separate it from cyclohexane.
The separation of benzene from cyclohexane is a common step in the industrial production and purification of cyclohexane. Benzene and cyclohexane have similar boiling points and molecular size, which makes the separation challenging. “Because of the small difference in their boiling points — just 0.6°C — the separation of benzene and cyclohexane is currently extremely difficult and expensive to achieve via distillation or other methods,” says Martin Schröder, a Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry at the Univ. of Manchester and senior author of the new study published in the journal Chem.
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