报告题目：Harnessing the MolecularTrapdoor Effect for Gas Separation via Adsorption

 报告人：尚进（香港城市大学）

 报告时间：2025年7月2日（周三）9:30—10:30

 报告地点：大学城校区环境楼B4-215会议室

         欢迎广大师生参加。

 环境与能源学院

 2025年6月30日

 报告人简介：

Jin Shang is atenured Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, specializingin adsorption-based gas separation technology, finding applications in carboncapture, carbon removal, the extraction of toxic gases etc. Prof. Shangdiscovered the molecular trapdoor mechanism, the fourth recognized method foradsorption-based separation showing the highest CO2 selectivity innatural gas purification. He has received the 2024 Carbon Capture Award forExcellent Research and the 2022 ISTP-Bogen Young Scientist Award. With over 130papers published and an h-index of 53, Prof. Shang is among Stanford's top 2%most highly cited scientists in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

 报告摘要：

Chemical separations account for 10–15% ofglobal energy consumption. Adsorption-based separation offers a moreenergy-efficient alternative to conventional distillation by eliminating phasetransitions and operating under milder conditions. Among adsorption mechanisms,molecular sieving is celebrated for its precision—selectively admittingmolecules based on size exclusion. However, conventional sieving fails when thesize difference between gas molecules is minimal.

To overcome this limitation, we discovered themolecular trapdoor mechanism —a paradigm shift that enables non-size-basedmolecular sieving. Instead of relying solely on molecular dimensions, thismechanism exploits differential interactions between gas molecules andpore-keeping groups within the adsorbent. Gases with stronger interactions openthe “trapdoor” and are adsorbed, while weaker-interacting species are excluded.This interaction-governed selectivity enables separations previouslyinaccessible to traditional sieving.

In this talk, I will first share the discoverypath of the molecular trapdoor mechanism and the design of various trapdooradsorbents for different applications. I will then highlight our recentadvances in applying this mechanism to achieve counterintuitiveseparations—specifically, sieving-level selectivity in both same-size andsize-inverse scenarios. One example is the development of an LTA-type zeolitewith tunable door-keeping cations, which exhibits size-inverse molecularsieving and exceptional Xe selectivity. By adjusting the cationic sites, weachieved invertible sieving-level separation of Xe and Kr—enabling exclusiveadsorption of either component, a breakthrough with significant scientificimplications. Additionally, we developed flexible zeolite-based trapdooradsorbents that enable same-size sieving of CO₂ over C₂H₂, utilizing a novelapproach that regulates trapdoor dynamics based on adsorption configurationdifferences.

These results illustrate the transformativepotential of molecular trapdoor zeolites for advancing gas separationtechnologies, offering innovative pathways to address persistent challenges inchemical separations.