Abstract
The separation of chlorobenzene (CB) and chlorocyclohexane (CCH) using traditional industrial separation technologies (distillation, fractionation, and rectification) is a great challenge due to their close boiling points. Here, we report an innovative method for the separation of the mixture of CB and CCH by nonporous adaptive crystals (NACs) of perethylated pillar[6]arene (EtP6). NACs of EtP6 (EtP6α) can selectively adsorb CCH vapor from the vapor mixture of CB and CCH (v:v = 1:1) with a purity of 99.5%. Furthermore, EtP6α can be recycled for five times without a significant loss of performance.