Separating water isotopologues using diffusion-regulatory porous materials

Yan Su, Ken-ichi Otake, Jia-Jia Zheng, Satoshi Horike, Susumu Kitagawa () and Cheng Gu ()
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Yan Su: South China University of Technology
Ken-ichi Otake: Kyoto University
Jia-Jia Zheng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Satoshi Horike: Kyoto University
Susumu Kitagawa: Kyoto University
Cheng Gu: South China University of Technology

Nature, 2022, vol. 611, issue 7935, 289-294

Abstract: Abstract The discovery of a method to separate isotopologues, molecular entities that differ in only isotopic composition1, is fundamentally and technologically essential but remains challenging2,3. Water isotopologues, which are very important in biological processes, industry, medical care, etc. are among the most difficult isotopologue pairs to separate because of their very similar physicochemical properties and chemical exchange equilibrium. Herein, we report efficient separation of water isotopologues at room temperature by constructing two porous coordination polymers (PCPs, or metal–organic frameworks) in which flip-flop molecular motions within the frameworks provide diffusion-regulatory functionality. Guest traffic is regulated by the local motions of dynamic gates on contracted pore apertures, thereby amplifying the slight differences in the diffusion rates of water isotopologues. Significant temperature-responsive adsorption occurs on both PCPs: H2O vapour is preferentially adsorbed into the PCPs, with substantially increased uptake compared to that of D2O vapour, facilitating kinetics-based vapour separation of H2O/HDO/D2O ternary mixtures with high H2O separation factors of around 210 at room temperature.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05310-y

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