Adsorption and separation of hydrogen isotopes in carbon nanotubes: Multicomponent grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations

Fluids and Electrolytes under Confinement in Single-Digit Nanopores

Confined fluids and electrolyte solutions in nanopores exhibit rich and surprising physics and chemistry that impact the mass transport and energy efficiency in many important natural systems and industrial applications. Existing theories often fail to predict the exotic effects observed in the narrowest of such pores, called single-digit nanopores (SDNs), which have diameters or conduit widths of less than 10 nm, and have only recently become accessible for experimental measurements. What SDNs reveal has been surprising, including a rapidly increasing number of examples such as extraordinarily fast water transport, distorted fluid-phase boundaries, strong ion-correlation and quantum effects, and dielectric anomalies that are not observed in larger pores. Exploiting these effects presents myriad opportunities in both basic and applied research that stand to impact a host of new technologies at the water-energy nexus, from new membranes for precise separations and water purification to new gas permeable materials for water electrolyzers and energy-storage devices. SDNs also present unique opportunities to achieve ultrasensitive and selective chemical sensing at the single-ion and single-molecule limit. In this review article, we summarize the progress on nanofluidics of SDNs, with a focus on the confinement effects that arise in these extremely narrow nanopores. The recent development of precision model systems, transformative experimental tools, and multiscale theories that have played enabling roles in advancing this frontier are reviewed. We also identify new knowledge gaps in our understanding of nanofluidic transport and provide an outlook for the future challenges and opportunities at this rapidly advancing frontier.

Computer simulation investigation of the adsorption of acetamide on low density amorphous ice. An astrochemical perspective

The adsorption of acetamide on low density amorphous (LDA) ice is investigated by grand canonical Monte Carlo computer simulations at the temperatures 50, 100, and 200 K, characteristic of certain domains of the interstellar medium (ISM). We found that the relative importance of the acetamide-acetamide H-bonds with respect to the acetamide-water ones increases with decreasing temperature. Thus, with decreasing temperature, the existence of the stable monolayer, characterizing the adsorption at 200 K, is gradually replaced by the occurrence of marked multilayer adsorption, preceding even the saturation of the first layer at 50 K. While isolated acetamide molecules prefer to lay parallel to the ice surface to maximize their H-bonding with the surface water molecules, this orientational preference undergoes a marked change upon saturation of the first layer due to increasing competition of the adsorbed molecules for H-bonds with water and to the possibility of their H-bond formation with each other. As a result, molecules stay preferentially perpendicular to the ice surface in the saturated monolayer. The chemical potential value corresponding to the point of condensation is found to decrease linearly with increasing temperature. We provide, in analogy with the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, a thermodynamic explanation of this behavior and estimate the molar entropy of condensed phase acetamide to be 34.0 J/mol K. For the surface concentration of the saturated monolayer, we obtain the value 9.1 ± 0.8 µmol/m², while the heat of adsorption at infinitely low surface coverage is estimated to be -67.8 ± 3.0 kJ/mol. Our results indicate that the interstellar formation of peptide chains through acetamide molecules, occurring at the surface of LDA ice, might well be a plausible process in the cold (i.e., below 50 K) domains of the ISM; however, it is a rather unlikely scenario in its higher temperature (i.e., 100-200 K) domains.

Description of the Interfacial Behavior of Benzonitrile at Icy Surfaces by Grand Canonical Monte Carlo Simulations

The adsorption of benzonitrile at the surface of crystalline (I_h) and low-density amorphous (LDA) ice has been investigated by grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations at temperatures ranging from 50 to 200 K. It is found that, in spite of its rather large dipole moment of 4.5 D, benzonitrile molecules can only form a highly unsaturated monolayer on LDA ice, reaching not more than 50% of the surface concentration of the saturated monolayer even at the lowest temperature considered, and they practically do not adsorb on I_h ice. In spite of the observed weak ability of the benzonitrile molecules for being adsorbed, the estimated heat of adsorption at an infinitely low surface concentration of -66.8 ± 2.2 kJ/mol is rather large. This value includes the contribution of roughly -30 to -35 kJ/mol of a benzene ring, about -10 kJ/mol of a large molecular dipole moment, and about -20 to -25 kJ/mol of a benzonitrile-water H-bond, as estimated from comparisons with the heat of adsorption values of similar molecules. The surprisingly weak ability of benzonitrile for adsorption is thus attributed to the unusually strong cohesion between the molecules, considerably exceeding their adhesion to ice, as reflected in the 70-80 kJ/mol difference of the lateral and ice contributions to the binding energy of surface benzonitrile molecules in the presence of condensed benzonitrile.

Adsorption-Based Separation of Near-Azeotropic Mixtures-A Challenging Example for High-Throughput Development of Adsorbents

Adsorption of gas mixtures is central to adsorption-based gas separations, and the number of adsorbate mixture/adsorbent systems that exist is staggering. Because examples of machine learning (ML) models predicting single-component adsorption of arbitrary molecules in large libraries of crystalline adsorbents have been developed, it is interesting to determine whether these models can accurately predict mixture adsorption. Here, we use molecular simulations to generate mixture adsorption data with a set of 12 near-azeotropic molecules in a diverse set of MOFs. These data provide a challenging example for any method to rapidly predict mixture adsorption in MOFs. We combine a previous ML single-component isotherm model with ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) to make predictions that can be compared directly with molecular simulation data for these adsorbed mixtures. This combination of ML and IAST illustrates the scope that is available with these methods, but the accuracy of the resulting predictions is disappointing. By examining the same examples with IAST based on minimal molecular simulation data for single-component isotherms, we show that having an accurate description of adsorption in the dilute loading limit is critical to being able to accurately predict mixture adsorption. This observation points to a useful direction for future work developing robust ML models of adsorption isotherms for diverse collections of molecules and adsorbents.

Enhanced quantum sieving of hydrogen isotopes via molecular rearrangement of the adsorbed phase in chabazite

Coadsorption experiments reveal an unexpected increase of the D2/H2 selectivity with loading in pure silica chabazite at 47 K. This effect is correlated with the appearance of a step in the adsorption isotherms of H2 and D2. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations show that this phenomenon is related to a molecular rearrangement of the adsorbed phase induced by its strong confinement. In the case of a H2 and D2 mixture, this rearrangement favors the adsorption of D2 having a smaller size due to quantum effects.

Water-Ethanol and Methanol-Ethanol Separations Using in Situ Confined Polymer Chains in a Metal-Organic Framework

This study presents a straightforward approach for the in situ polymerization of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) chains within the one-dimensional (1D) pores of the five-coordinated zinc-based metal-organic framework DMOF in order to obtain new MOF-based composites. The loading amount of PNIPAM within DMOF ⊃ PNIPAM composites can be tuned by changing the initial weight ratio between NIPAM, which is the monomer of PNIPAM, and DMOF. The guest PNIPAM chains in the composites block partially the 1D pores of DMOF, thus leading to a narrowed nanospace. The water adsorption studies reveal that the water uptake increased by increasing the loading of PNIPAM in the final DMOF ⊃ PNIPAM composites, indicating that the exposed amide groups of PNIPAM gradually alter the hydrophobicity of pristine DMOF and lead to hydrophilic DMOF ⊃ PNIPAM composites. The composite with the highest loading of PNIPAM displays a selective adsorption for water and methanol over ethanol when using equimolar mixtures of methanol-ethanol and water-ethanol. This is confirmed by the single-component adsorption measurements as well as ideal adsorbed solution theory molecular simulations. Additionally, the water stability of pristine DMOF has been greatly improved after the incorporation of PNIPAM in its pores. PNIPAM can undergo a phase transition between hydrophobic and hydrophilic phases in response to a low temperature change. This property is used in order to control the desorption of water and methanol molecules, thus enabling an efficient and cost-effective regeneration process.

Efficient Separation of Ethanol-Methanol and Ethanol-Water Mixtures Using ZIF-8 Supported on a Hierarchical Porous Mixed-Oxide Substrate

This work reports a new approach for the synthesis of a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) composite. It employs the direct growth of the crystalline ZIF-8 on a mixed-metal oxide support TiO₂-SiO₂ (TSO), which mimics the porous structure of Populus nigra. Using the natural leaf as a template, the TSO support was prepared using a sol-gel method. The growth of the ZIF-8 layer on the TSO support was carried out by the seeds and second growth method. This method facilitates the homogeneous dispersion of ZIF-8 crystals at the surface of the TSO composite. The ZIF-8@TSO composite adsorbs methanol selectively, mainly due to the hierarchical porous structure of the mixed oxide support. As compared with the as-synthesized ZIF-8, a 50% methanol uptake is achieved in the ZIF-8@TSO composite, with only 25 wt % ZIF-8 loading. IAST simulations show that the ZIF-8@TSO composite has a preferential adsorption toward methanol when using an equimolar methanol-ethanol mixture. An opposite behavior is observed for the as-synthesized ZIF-8. The results show that combining MOFs and mixed-oxide supports with bioinspired structures opens opportunities for synthesizing new materials with unique and enhanced adsorption and separation properties.

Molecular Sieves for the Separation of Hydrogen Isotopes

Stable molecular hydrogen isotopes, D₂ and T₂, are both scarce and essential in several energy, industrial, and large-scale fundamental research applications. Due to the chemical similarity of these isotopes, their extraction and purification from hydrogen has relied for decades on expensive and energy-demanding processes. However, factoring in the phenomenon of quantum sieving could provide a new route for these separations. In this work, we have explored how to separate hydrogen isotopes by adsorption taking these quantum effects into account. To this end, we have conducted adsorption measurements to test our deuterium model and performed a widespread computational screening over 210 pure-silica zeolites for D₂/H₂ and T₂/H₂ separations. Based on low-coverage adsorption properties, a reduced set of zeolites have been singled out and their performance in terms of adsorption capacity, selectivity, and dynamic behavior have been assessed. Overall, the BCT-type zeolite clearly stands out for highly selective separations of both D₂ and T₂ over H₂, achieving the highest reported selectivities at cryogenic temperatures. We also identified other interesting zeolites for the separation of hydrogen isotopes that offer an alternative way to tackle similar isotopic separations by an aimed selection or design of porous materials.

Systematic Experimental Study on Quantum Sieving of Hydrogen Isotopes in Metal-Amide-Imidazolate Frameworks with narrow 1-D Channels

Quantum sieving of hydrogen isotopes is experimentally studied in isostructural hexagonal metal‐organic frameworks having 1‐D channels, named IFP‐1, −3, −4 and −7. Inside the channels, different molecules or atoms restrict the channel diameter periodically with apertures larger (4.2 Å for IFP‐1, 3.1 Å for IFP‐3) and smaller (2.1 Å for IFP‐7, 1.7 Å for IFP‐4) than the kinetic diameter of hydrogen isotopes. From a geometrical point of view, no gas should penetrate into IFP‐7 and IFP‐4, but due to the thermally induced flexibility, so‐called gate‐opening effect of the apertures, penetration becomes possible with increasing temperature. Thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) measurements with pure H₂ or D₂ have been applied to study isotope adsorption. Further TDS experiments after exposure to an equimolar H₂/D₂ mixture allow to determine directly the selectivity of isotope separation by quantum sieving. IFP‐7 shows a very low selectivity not higher than S=2. The selectivity of the materials with the smallest pore aperture IFP‐4 has a constant value of S≈2 for different exposure times and pressures, which can be explained by the 1‐D channel structure. Due to the relatively small cavities between the apertures of IFP‐4 and IFP‐7, molecules in the channels cannot pass each other, which leads to a single‐file filling. Therefore, no time dependence is observed, since the quantum sieving effect occurs only at the outermost pore aperture, resulting in a low separation selectivity.

Hydrogen Isotope Separation in Confined Nanospaces: Carbons, Zeolites, Metal-Organic Frameworks, and Covalent Organic Frameworks

One of the greatest challenges of modern separation technology is separating isotope mixtures in high purity. The separation of hydrogen isotopes can create immense economic value by producing valuable deuterium (D) and tritium (T), which are irreplaceable for various industrial and scientific applications. However, current separation methods suffer from low separation efficiency owing to the similar chemical properties of isotopes; thus, high-purity isotopes are not easily achieved. Recently, nanoporous materials have been proposed as promising candidates and are supported by a newly proposed separation mechanism, i.e., quantum effects. Herein, the fundamentals of the quantum sieving effect of hydrogen isotopes in nanoporous materials are discussed, which are mainly kinetic quantum sieving and chemical-affinity quantum sieving, including the recent advances in the analytical techniques. As examples of nanoporous materials, carbons, zeolites, metal-organic frameworks, and covalent organic frameworks are addressed from computational and experimental standpoints. Understanding the quantum sieving effect in nanospaces and the tailoring of porous materials based on it will open up new opportunities to develop a highly efficient and advanced isotope separation systems.

Adsorption of Formamide at the Surface of Amorphous and Crystalline Ices under Interstellar and Tropospheric Conditions. A Grand Canonical Monte Carlo Simulation Study

The adsorption of formamide is studied both at the surface of crystalline (I_h) ice at 200 K and at the surface of low density amorphous (LDA) ice in the temperature range of 50-200 K by grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation. These systems are characteristic of the upper troposphere and of the interstellar medium (ISM), respectively. Our results reveal that while no considerable amount of formamide is dissolved in the bulk ice phase in any case, the adsorption of formamide at the ice surface under these conditions is a very strongly preferred process, which has to be taken into account when studying the chemical reactivity in these environments. The adsorption is found to lead to the formation of multimolecular adsorption layer, the occurrence of which somewhat precedes the saturation of the first molecular layer. Due to the strong lateral interaction acting between the adsorbed formamide molecules, the adsorption isotherm does not follow the Langmuir shape. Adsorption is found to be slightly stronger on LDA than I_h ice under identical thermodynamic conditions, due to the larger surface area exposed to the adsorption. Indeed, the monomolecular adsorption capacity of the LDA and I_h ice surfaces is found to be 10.5 ± 0.7 μmol/m² and 9.4 μmol/m², respectively. The first layer formamide molecules are very strongly bound to the ice surface, forming typically four hydrogen bonds with each other and the surface water molecules. The heat of adsorption at infinitely low surface coverage is found to be -105.6 kJ/mol on I_h ice at 200 K.

Near-surface structure of Nafion in deuterated water

The swelling of a polymer ion-exchange membrane Nafion in water with various heavy isotope contents (D₂O) was studied by photoluminescent UV spectroscopy. The photoluminescence arises because of the presence of sulfonic groups attached to the ends of the perfluorovinyl ether groups that form the tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) backbone of Nafion. The width of the colloidal region, which is formed near the membrane surface as a result of the outgrowth of Nafion microfibers toward the bulk liquid, varies non-monotonically with D₂O content, displaying a narrow maximum in the low concentration region. A significant insight into the unexpected isotopic effects revealed in swelling Nafion in deuterated water is provided. Mainly, the polymer swelling is very sensitive to small changes (on the order of several tens of parts per million) in the content of deuterium, which, for instance, can help in understanding the isotopic effects in living tissues.

Efficiently Exploring Adsorption Space to Identify Privileged Adsorbents for Chemical Separations of a Diverse Set of Molecules

Although computational models have been used to predict adsorption of molecules in large libraries of porous adsorbents, previous work of this kind has focused on a small number of molecules as potential adsorbates. In this study, molecular simulations were used to consider the adsorption of a diverse range of molecules in a large collection of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials. Specifically, 11 304 isotherms were obtained from molecular simulations of 24 different adsorbates in 471 MOFs. This information provides insight into several interesting questions that could not be addressed with previously available data. Highly computationally efficient methods are introduced that can predict isotherms for a wide range of adsorbing molecules with far less computation than traditional molecular simulations. By characterizing the 276 binary mixtures defined by the molecules considered, "privileged" adsorbents are shown to exist, which are effective for separating many different molecular mixtures. Finally, correlations that were developed previously to predict molecular solubility in polymers are found to be surprisingly effective in predicting the average properties of molecules adsorbing in MOFs.

Adsorption of Methylamine on Amorphous Ice under Interstellar Conditions. A Grand Canonical Monte Carlo Simulation Study

The adsorption of methylamine at the surface of amorphous ice is studied at various temperatures, ranging from 20 to 200 K, by grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations under conditions that are characteristic to the interstellar medium (ISM). The results are also compared with those obtained earlier on crystalline ( I_h) ice. We found that methylamine has a strong ability of being adsorbed on amorphous ice, involving also multilayer adsorption. The decrease of the temperature leads to a substantial increase of this adsorption ability; thus, considerable adsorption is seen at 20-50 K even at bulk gas phase concentrations that are comparable with that of the ISM. Further, methylamine molecules can also be dissolved in the bulk amorphous ice phase. Both the adsorption capacity of amorphous ice and the strength of the adsorption on it are found to be clearly larger than those corresponding to crystalline ( I_h) ice, due to the molecular scale roughness of the amorphous ice surface as well as to the lack of clear orientational preferences of the water molecules at this surface. Thus, the surface density of the saturated adsorption monolayer is estimated to be 12.6 ± 0.4 μmol/m², 20% larger than the value of 10.35 μmol/m², obtained earlier for I_h ice, and at low enough surface coverages the adsorbed methylamine molecules are found to easily form up to three hydrogen bonds with the surface water molecules. The estimated heat of adsorption at infinitely low surface coverage is calculated to be -69 ± 5 kJ/mol, being rather close to the estimated heat of solvation in the bulk amorphous ice phase of -74 ± 7 kJ/mol, indicating that there are at least a few positions at the surface where the adsorbed methylamine molecules experience a bulk-like local environment.

Efficient hydrogen isotopologues separation through a tunable potential barrier: The case of a C2N membrane

Isotopes separation through quantum sieving effect of membranes is quite promising for industrial applications. For the light hydrogen isotopologues (eg. H2, D2), the confinement of potential wells in porous membranes to isotopologues was commonly regarded to be crucial for highly efficient separation ability. Here, we demonstrate from first-principles that a potential barrier is also favorable for efficient hydrogen isotopologues separation. Taking an already-synthesized two-dimensional carbon nitride (C2N-h2D) as an example, we predict that the competition between quantum tunneling and zero-point-energy (ZPE) effects regulated by the tensile strain leads to high selectivity and permeance. Both kinetic quantum sieving and equilibrium quantum sieving effects are considered. The quantum effects revealed in this work offer a prospective strategy for highly efficient hydrogen isotopologues separation.

Enhanced xenon adsorption and separation with an anionic indium–organic framework by ion exchange with Co2+

Ion-exchanged Co²⁺-CPM-6 exhibits a distinctly higher Xe/Kr separating ability than organic cation analogues, suggesting a promising candidate material for Xe/Kr separation.

Quest for Inexpensive Hydrogen Isotopic Fractionation: Do We Need 2D Quantum Confining in Porous Materials or Are Rough Surfaces Enough? The Case of Ammonia Nanoclusters

We study the adsorption energetics and quantum properties of the molecular hydrogen isotopes H₂, D₂, and T₂ onto the surface of rigid ammonia nanoclusters with quantum simulations and accurate model potential energy surfaces (PES). A highly efficient diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) algorithm for rigid rotors allowed us to accurately define zero-point adsorption energies for the three isotopes, as well as the degree of translational and rotational delocalization that each affords on the surface. From the data emerges that the quantum adsorption energy (E_ads) of T₂ can be up to twice the one of H₂ at 0 K, suggesting the possibility of exploiting some form of solid ammonia to selectivity separate hydrogen isotopes at low temperatures (≃20 K). This is discussed by focusing on the structural motif that may be more effective for the task. The analysis of the contributions to E_ads, however, surprisingly indicates that the average kinetic energy (E^kin) and rotation energy (E_rot^kin) of T₂ can also be, respectively, 2 times and 20 times higher than those of H₂; this finding markedly deviates from what is predicted for hydrogen molecules inside carbon nanotubes (CNT) or metallic-organic frameworks (MOF), where E^kin and E_rot^kin is higher for H₂ due to the unavoidable effects of confinement and hindrance to its rotational motion. The rationale for these differences is provided by the geometrical distributions for the rigid rotors, which reveal an increasingly stronger coupling between rotational and translational degrees of freedom upon increasing the isotopic mass. This effect has never been observed before on adsorbing surfaces (e.g., graphite) and is induced by a strongly anisotropic and anharmonic bowl-like potential experienced by the rotors.

A novel 3-D microporous magnesium-based metal–organic framework with open metal sites

A novel Mg(II) MOF [Mg₄(bdc)₄(DEF)₄]_n (1) containing coordinated DEF molecules has been synthesized. Heating 1 to 400 °C provides a DEF-free MOF (3) with open metal sites, resulting in large H₂ and CO₂ uptakes and high CO₂/N₂ selectivity.

Transport diffusivity of propane and propylene inside SWNTs from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations

The gas transport of two model gases (propane and propylene) inside the single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) of various diameters was systematically investigated using the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The thermodynamic factor can be obtained directly from equilibrium MD simulations following the newly-minted method proposed by Schnell et al. (Chem. Phys. Lett., 2011, 504, 199-201). This process eliminates the need to implement the tedious and challenging Monte Carlo simulations for the adsorption isotherm, from which the thermodynamic factor is usually extracted. The satisfactory agreement between simulation and the literature is found for self-diffusivity, corrected diffusivity and transport diffusivity, as well as for the thermodynamic factor. The ideal selectivity for a propane-propylene mixture through SWNT membranes could be optimized through adjusting the concentration gradient. This method can be readily extended to the binary and multiple-component systems.

Finding MOFs for highly selective CO2/N2 adsorption using materials screening based on efficient assignment of atomic point charges

Electrostatic interactions are a critical factor in the adsorption of quadrupolar species such as CO(2) and N(2) in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and other nanoporous materials. We show how a version of the semiempirical charge equilibration method suitable for periodic materials can be used to efficiently assign charges and allow molecular simulations for a large number of MOFs. This approach is illustrated by simulating CO(2) and N(2) adsorption in ~500 MOFs; this is the largest set of structures for which this information has been reported to date. For materials predicted by our calculations to have promising adsorption selectivities, we performed more detailed calculations in which accurate quantum chemistry methods were used to assign atomic point charges, and molecular simulations were used to assess molecular diffusivities and binary adsorption isotherms. Our results identify two MOFs, experimentally known to be stable upon solvent removal, that are predicted to show no diffusion limitations for adsorbed molecules and extremely high CO(2)/N(2) adsorption selectivities for CO(2) adsorption from dry air and from gas mixtures typical of dry flue gas.

THE EQUILIBRIUM CONSTANTS FOR MOLECULAR HYDROGEN ADSORPTION IN CARBON NANOTUBES BASED ON ITERATIVELY DETERMINED NANO-CONFINED BOUND STATES

A model for H 2 inside single-walled carbon nanotubes is outlined. ARPACK (the Arnoldi package), a robust iterative matrix-vector eigenvalue software library, is used to determine the allowed quantum states of H 2 inside various carbon nanotubes. This information is used to construct the equilibrium constants for H 2 adsorption as a function of temperature for a variety of CNTs.

Selective D2 adsorption enhanced by the quantum sieving effect on entangled single-wall carbon nanotubes

The quantum sieving effect of D(2) over H(2) is examined at 40 and 77 K by means of experiments and GCMC simulations, for two types of single-wall carbon nanotubes that are distinguishable by their unique entangled structures; (1) a well-bundled SWCNT and (2) loosely-assembled SWCNT produced by the super growth method (SG-SWCNT). Oxidized SWCNT samples of which the so-called internal sites are accessible for H(2) and D(2), are also studied. Experimental H(2) and D(2) adsorption properties on the well-bundled SWCNTs are compared with the simulated ones, revealing that pore-blocking and restricted diffusion of the molecules suppress the high selectivity of D(2) over H(2). The non-oxidized SG-SWCNT assembly shows the highest selectivity among the SWCNT samples, both at 40 and 77 K. The high selectivity of the SG-SWCNT assembly, which is pronounced even at 77 K, is ascribed to their unique assembly structure.

Hydrogen isotope separation in carbon nanotubes: calculation of coupled rotational and translational States at high densities

The effect of the quantized rotational degrees of freedom of hydrogen on the adsorption and sieving properties in carbon nanotubes is studied using computer simulations. We have developed a highly efficient multiple timestep algorithm for hybrid Monte Carlo sampling of quantized rotor configurations and extended the grand canonical Boltzmann bias method to rigid linear molecules. These new computational tools allow us to calculate accurately the quantum sieving selectivities for cases of extreme two-dimensional confinement as a function of pressure. The para-T2/para-H2 selectivity at 20 K is analyzed as a function of the tube diameter and the density of adsorbed hydrogen. Extraordinarily high selectivities, up to 2.6 x 10(8), are observed in the narrowest nanotube. The quantized nature of the rotational degrees of freedom is found to dramatically affect adsorption and selectivity for hydrogen isotopes adsorbed in very narrow nanotubes. The T2/H2 zero-pressure selectivity increases from 2.4 x 10(4) to 1.7 x 10(8) in the (3,6) nanotube at 20 K when quantum rotations are accounted for. The isotopic selectivity is found to increase with pressure, tending to a constant value at saturation. A simplified mean-field model is used to discuss the origin of this behavior.