Desorption in conventional porous sorbents often employ external forces including inert gas blowing, heating, vacuum treatment to trigger guest release. We here report an unprecedented molecular–squeeze triggered guest release behavior from sponge–like macrocycle crystals. The crystals function as typical sponge to include guest molecules within their microscopic voids that are adaptively formed, thus acting as adsorbents for toluene/pyridine separations. Intriguingly, vaporized ethyl acetate ( EA ) molecules trigger the guest release from the crystals without entering the pores or voids of the crystals to replace the guests. Instead, they work as external forces applied directly onto the crystals themselves, ‘‘squeezing” the materials to close the voids through supramolecular interactions between EA and macrocycles on the crystal surface and release the guest molecules. Various experimental techniques as well as molecular dynamics simulations reveal the mechanism of the molecular–squeeze induced guest release procedure. The EA –regenerated crystals can be recycled multiple times without the loss of separation performance. Compared with conventional guest release procedure, this method is manipulated in a mild condition, showing the potential in saving cost and energy.

中文翻译：

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分子挤压触发海绵状大环晶体中的客体解吸


传统多孔吸附剂中的解吸通常利用外力，包括惰性气体吹扫、加热、真空处理来触发客体释放。我们在这里报告了一种前所未有的分子挤压触发的海绵状大环晶体的客体释放行为。晶体的作用类似于典型的海绵，在其适应性形成的微观空隙中包含客体分子，从而充当甲苯/吡啶分离的吸附剂。有趣的是，汽化的乙酸乙酯 （ EA ） 分子触发了从晶体中释放的客体，而无需进入晶体的孔隙或空隙来取代客体。相反，它们作为直接施加在晶体本身上的外力的作用，通过 EA 和晶体表面大环之间的超分子相互作用“挤压”材料以封闭空隙并释放客体分子。各种实验技术以及分子动力学模拟揭示了分子挤压诱导客体释放程序的机制。EA 再生晶体可以多次回收，而不会损失分离性能。与传统的 Guest 释放程序相比，该方法在温和的条件下进行操作，显示出节省成本和能源的潜力。