Edge-activated graphene nanopores for thermally robust hydrogen membrane separations
Chi Cheng (),
Lohyun Kim,
Aaron H. Persad,
Chun Man Chow and
Rohit Karnik ()
Additional contact information
Chi Cheng: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lohyun Kim: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Aaron H. Persad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chun Man Chow: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rohit Karnik: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14
Abstract:
Abstract Temperature-dependent, selective molecular diffusion through porous materials is crucial for membrane separations and is typically modeled as an Arrhenius-type activated process. Although this dependence can be described phenomenologically by an activation energy, tracing its molecular origins is often difficult, hindering robust membrane design for practical applications. Here, we investigate gas transport across monolayer nanoporous graphene membranes and observe significant, reversible, temperature-robust, and gas species-selective activated transport, with increased selectivity at rising temperatures, unlike many conventional membranes. Combined experiment and modelling trace this behavior to graphene nanopore edge functional groups, whose thermal fluctuations modulate effective pore size. This activated transport remains stable with aging over 1 year and shows selectivity exceeding 70 for hydrogen/hydrocarbon mixture separation at 220 °C, representative of dehydrogenation reactor temperatures. Our results demonstrate the thermal and long-term robustness of nanoporous graphene membranes, suggesting potential for precise engineering of nanopore surface chemistries in membranes for challenging molecular separations.
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61110-8 Abstract (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61110-8
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61110-8
Access Statistics for this article
Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie
More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().