Decoding the zeolite cage effect in one-step ethylene purification from CO2/C2H2/C2H4 mixtures

•SSZ-16 zeolite provides two distinct adsorption environments for adsorptive separation.•Achieves polymer-grade C2H4 productivity of 2099.16 L/kg from CO2/C2H2/C2H4.•Maintains high performance and stability under 75% humidity, ideal for industrial applications.•Provides a promising alternative to traditional ethylene purification technologies. Utilizing physical adsorption for ethylene purification from complex mixtures can significantly reduce the energy cost for production. The purification of multi-component systems through a single adsorption process presents a considerable challenge, largely stemming from the absence of customized strategies and thorough investigations into adsorption behaviours. We aim to understand adsorbents through a unique cage recognition approach and leverage these insights to develop an effective purification adsorbent, with the successful synthesis of SSZ-16 zeolite meeting requirements for multi-component purification. This zeolite, featuring a long aft supercage and a narrow gme cage construct two adsorption cages. The dense π-electron cloud of C2H2 enables a stronger interaction in aft cage, while CO2 is selectively captured within the environmentally compatible gme cage, demonstrating significantly higher C2H2 and CO2 adsorption capacity. The separation experiments reveal that SSZ-16 exhibits exceptional performance, with an unprecedented polymer-grade C2H4 productivity of 2099.16 L/kg from the CO2/C2H2/C2H4 mixture.