Angstrom‐Scale Triangular Pore in Single‐Layer Hexagonal Boron Nitride Membrane for Molecular Sieving
Abstract
AbstractSingle‐layer crystalline films are ideal separation membrane materials because their atomic thickness could yield the highest possible molecular flux once nanopores are generated. However, the development of single‐layer membranes with well‐defined pore structures remains elusive, which makes the realization of efficient molecular sieving and interpretation of molecular transport a difficult task. Herein, we report the fabrication of single‐layer nanoporous hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) membranes that uniquely contain triangular nanopores with a high density (around 1012 pores per cm2). The hBN membranes exhibit a H2 permeance of 5.43 × 10−6 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1 with a H2/CH4 selectivity of 14.7; they also show a CO2 permeance of 1.37 × 10−6 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1, with a CO2/N2 selectivity of 12.3. Importantly, we show that straightforward mathematical modeling can predict and describe the gas transport properties of the hBN, providing new insights into the molecular transport across atomically thin nanopores. The results gained from this study could significantly advance our understanding of molecular transport across hBN nanopores and may promote the development of hBN membranes to address critical separation issues.
Article Details
Authors (15)
Guangwei He
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University Tianjin 300072 China
Qianfeng Pan
Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology Tianjin University Tianjin China
Zhe Yuan
Luis Francisco Villalobos
Ji‐Hoon Park
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts USA
Heng‐Yu Chi
Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS) École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Sion Switzerland
Matthias Kuehne
Department of Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts USA
Yuwen Zeng
State Key Laboratory of Molecule Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science
Yu‐Ming Tu
Department of Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts USA
Jing Zhao
Jing Kong
Zhongyi Jiang
Department Joint School of National University of Singapore and Tianjin University
Kumar Varoon Agrawal
Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS)
Daniel Blankschtein
Department of Chemical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts USA
Michael S. Strano