Regioselective Separation and Extraction of Polyalkylthiophene by Metal–Organic Frameworks

Abstract Here, we report a novel method for selectively extracting high‐regioregularity (RR) poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) from crude mixtures using metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as nanoporous separation media. This approach leverages a kinetically driven “threading” mechanism in one‐dimensional MOF channels, which discriminate subtle differences in the bonding patterns, e.g., head‐head and head‐tail linkages, in the main chain. By employing both MOF column chromatography and batch‐scale separation techniques, higher RR fractions of P3HT were readily extracted from a crude mixture containing lower RR fractions.