1
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Guo L, Wu N, Zhang S, Zeng H, Yang J, Han X, Duan H, Liu Y, Wang L. Emerging Advances around Nanofluidic Transport and Mass Separation under Confinement in Atomically Thin Nanoporous Graphene. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2024:e2404087. [PMID: 39031097 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202404087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2024] [Revised: 07/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/22/2024]
Abstract
Membrane separation stands as an environmentally friendly, high permeance and selectivity, low energy demand process that deserves scientific investigation and industrialization. To address intensive demand, seeking appropriate membrane materials to surpass trade-off between permeability and selectivity and improve stability is on the schedule. 2D materials offer transformational opportunities and a revolutionary platform for researching membrane separation process. Especially, the atomically thin graphene with controllable porosity and structure, as well as unique properties, is widely considered as a candidate for membrane materials aiming to provide extreme stability, exponentially large selectivity combined with high permeability. Currently, it has shown promising opportunities to develop separation membranes to tackle bottlenecks of traditional membranes, and it has been of great interest for tremendously versatile applications such as separation, energy harvesting, and sensing. In this review, starting from transport mechanisms of separation, the material selection bank is narrowed down to nanoporous graphene. The study presents an enlightening overview of very recent developments in the preparation of atomically thin nanoporous graphene and correlates surface properties of such 2D nanoporous materials to their performance in critical separation applications. Finally, challenges related to modulation and manufacturing as well as potential avenues for performance improvements are also pointed out.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liping Guo
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Ningran Wu
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing, 100095, China
| | - Shengping Zhang
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing, 100095, China
| | - Haiou Zeng
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Jing Yang
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Xiao Han
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing, 100095, China
| | - Hongwei Duan
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Yuancheng Liu
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Luda Wang
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro and Nano Manufacture Technology, School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Integrated Circuits, Beijing, 100871, China
- Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies and Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing, 100095, China
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2
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Zhou Z, Zhao K, Chi HY, Shen Y, Song S, Hsu KJ, Chevalier M, Shi W, Agrawal KV. Electrochemical-repaired porous graphene membranes for precise ion-ion separation. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4006. [PMID: 38740849 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48419-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/26/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The preparation of atom-thick porous lattice hosting Å-scale pores is attractive to achieve a large ion-ion selectivity in combination with a large ion flux. Graphene film is an ideal selective layer for this if high-precision pores can be incorporated, however, it is challenging to avoid larger non-selective pores at the tail-end of the pore size distribution which reduces ion-ion selectivity. Herein, we develop a strategy to overcome this challenge using an electrochemical repair strategy that successfully masks larger pores in large-area graphene. 10-nm-thick electropolymerized conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) layer is successfully deposited on graphene, thanks to a strong π-π interaction in these two materials. While the CMP layer itself is not selective, it effectively masks graphene pores, leading to a large Li+/Mg2+ selectivity from zero-dimensional pores reaching 300 with a high Li+ ion permeation rate surpassing the performance of reported materials for ion-ion separation. Overall, this scalable repair strategy enables the fabrication of monolayer graphene membranes with customizable pore sizes, limiting the contribution of nonselective pores, and offering graphene membranes a versatile platform for a broad spectrum of challenging separations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zongyao Zhou
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
- State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, P. R. China
| | - Kangning Zhao
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Heng-Yu Chi
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Yueqing Shen
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Shuqing Song
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Mojtaba Chevalier
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Wenxiong Shi
- Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300387, P. R. China
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland.
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3
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Goethem CV, Shen Y, Chi HY, Mensi M, Zhao K, Nijmeijer A, Just PE, Agrawal KV. Advancing Molecular Sieving via Å-Scale Pore Tuning in Bottom-Up Graphene Synthesis. ACS NANO 2024. [PMID: 38324377 PMCID: PMC10883125 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c11885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2024]
Abstract
Porous graphene films are attractive as a gas separation membrane given that the selective layer can be just one atom thick, allowing high-flux separation. A favorable aspect of porous graphene is that the pore size, essentially gaps created by lattice defects, can be tuned. While this has been demonstrated for postsynthetic, top-down pore etching in graphene, it does not exist in the more scalable, bottom-up synthesis of porous graphene. Inspired by the mechanism of precipitation-based synthesis of porous graphene over catalytic nickel foil, we herein conceive an extremely simple way to tune the pore size. This is implemented by increasing the cooling rate by over 100-fold from -1 °C min-1 to over -5 °C s-1. Rapid cooling restricts carbon diffusion, resulting in a higher availability of dissolved carbon for precipitation, as evidenced by quantitative carbon-diffusion simulation, measurement of carbon concentration as a function of nickel depth, and imaging of the graphene nanostructure. The resulting enhanced grain (inter)growth reduces the effective pore size which leads to an increase of the H2/CH4 separation factor from 6.2 up to 53.3.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cédric Van Goethem
- Laboratory for Advanced Separations (LAS), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l'industrie 17, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Yueqing Shen
- Laboratory for Advanced Separations (LAS), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l'industrie 17, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Heng-Yu Chi
- Laboratory for Advanced Separations (LAS), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l'industrie 17, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Mounir Mensi
- X-ray Diffraction and Surface Analytics Platform (XRD-SAP), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL-Valais Wallis), Rue de l'industrie 17, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Kangning Zhao
- Laboratory for Advanced Separations (LAS), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l'industrie 17, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Arian Nijmeijer
- Shell Global Solutions International B.V., P.O. Box 38000, 1030 BN Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Inorganic Membranes, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Paul-Emmanuel Just
- Shell Global Solutions International B.V., P.O. Box 38000, 1030 BN Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory for Advanced Separations (LAS), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l'industrie 17, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
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4
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Zhao K, Lee WC, Rezaei M, Chi HY, Li S, Villalobos LF, Hsu KJ, Zhang Y, Wang FC, Agrawal KV. Tuning Pore Size in Graphene in the Angstrom Regime for Highly Selective Ion-Ion Separation. ACS NANO 2024. [PMID: 38320296 PMCID: PMC10883049 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c11068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2024]
Abstract
Zero-dimensional pores spanning only a few angstroms in size in two-dimensional materials such as graphene are some of the most promising systems for designing ion-ion selective membranes. However, the key challenge in the field is that so far a crack-free macroscopic graphene membrane for ion-ion separation has not been realized. Further, methods to tune the pores in the Å-regime to achieve a large ion-ion selectivity from the graphene pore have not been realized. Herein, we report an Å-scale pore size tuning tool for single layer graphene, which incorporates a high density of ion-ion selective pores between 3.5 and 8.5 Å while minimizing the nonselective pores above 10 Å. These pores impose a strong confinement for ions, which results in extremely high selectivity from centimeter-scale porous graphene between monovalent and bivalent ions and near complete blockage of ions with the hydration diameter, DH, greater than 9.0 Å. The ion diffusion study reveals the presence of an energy barrier corresponding to partial dehydration of ions with the barrier increasing with DH. We observe a reversal of K+/Li+ selectivity at elevated temperature and attribute this to the relative size of the dehydrated ions. These results underscore the promise of porous two-dimensional materials for solute-solute separation when Å-scale pores can be incorporated in a precise manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kangning Zhao
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Wan-Chi Lee
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Mojtaba Rezaei
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Heng-Yu Chi
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
| | - Yuyang Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
| | - Feng-Chao Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950 Switzerland
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5
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Vahdat M, Li S, Huang S, Bondaz L, Bonnet N, Hsu KJ, Marzari N, Agrawal KV. Mechanistic Insights on Functionalization of Graphene with Ozone. THE JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. C, NANOMATERIALS AND INTERFACES 2023; 127:22015-22022. [PMID: 38024196 PMCID: PMC10658624 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c03994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 10/21/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
The exposure of graphene to O3 results in functionalization of its lattice with epoxy, even at room temperature. This reaction is of fundamental interest for precise lattice patterning, however, is not well understood. Herein, using van der Waals density functional theory (vdW-DFT) incorporating spin-polarized calculations, we find that O3 strongly physisorbs on graphene with a binding energy of -0.46 eV. It configures in a tilted position with the two terminal O atoms centered above the neighboring graphene honeycombs. A dissociative chemisorption follows by surpassing an energy barrier of 0.75 eV and grafting an epoxy group on graphene reducing the energy of the system by 0.14 eV from the physisorbed state. Subsequent O3 chemisorption is preferred on the same honeycomb, yielding two epoxy groups separated by a single C-C bridge. We show that capturing the onset of spin in oxygen during chemisorption is crucial. We verify this finding with experiments where an exponential increase in the density of epoxy groups as a function of reaction temperature yields an energy barrier of 0.66 eV, in agreement with the DFT prediction. These insights will help efforts to obtain precise patterning of the graphene lattice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad
Tohidi Vahdat
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
- Theory
and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational
Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Shiqi Huang
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Luc Bondaz
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Nicéphore Bonnet
- Theory
and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational
Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Marzari
- Theory
and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational
Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
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6
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Liu Q, Miao Y, Villalobos LF, Li S, Chi HY, Chen C, Vahdat MT, Song S, Babu DJ, Hao J, Han Y, Tsapatsis M, Agrawal KV. Unit-cell-thick zeolitic imidazolate framework films for membrane application. NATURE MATERIALS 2023; 22:1387-1393. [PMID: 37735526 PMCID: PMC10627807 DOI: 10.1038/s41563-023-01669-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023]
Abstract
Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are a subset of metal-organic frameworks with more than 200 characterized crystalline and amorphous networks made of divalent transition metal centres (for example, Zn2+ and Co2+) linked by imidazolate linkers. ZIF thin films have been intensively pursued, motivated by the desire to prepare membranes for selective gas and liquid separations. To achieve membranes with high throughput, as in ångström-scale biological channels with nanometre-scale path lengths, ZIF films with the minimum possible thickness-down to just one unit cell-are highly desired. However, the state-of-the-art methods yield membranes where ZIF films have thickness exceeding 50 nm. Here we report a crystallization method from ultradilute precursor mixtures, which exploits registry with the underlying crystalline substrate, yielding (within minutes) crystalline ZIF films with thickness down to that of a single structural building unit (2 nm). The film crystallized on graphene has a rigid aperture made of a six-membered zinc imidazolate coordination ring, enabling high-permselective H2 separation performance. The method reported here will probably accelerate the development of two-dimensional metal-organic framework films for efficient membrane separation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qi Liu
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
- College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Yurun Miao
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
- Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
| | - Heng-Yu Chi
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
| | - Cailing Chen
- Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mohammad Tohidi Vahdat
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
| | - Shuqing Song
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
| | - Deepu J Babu
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
- Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
| | - Jian Hao
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland
| | - Yu Han
- Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Michael Tsapatsis
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, USA
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, Switzerland.
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7
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Wang J, Cheng C, Zheng X, Idrobo JC, Lu AY, Park JH, Shin BG, Jung SJ, Zhang T, Wang H, Gao G, Shin B, Jin X, Ju L, Han Y, Li LJ, Karnik R, Kong J. Cascaded compression of size distribution of nanopores in monolayer graphene. Nature 2023; 623:956-963. [PMID: 38030784 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06689-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
Monolayer graphene with nanometre-scale pores, atomically thin thickness and remarkable mechanical properties provides wide-ranging opportunities for applications in ion and molecular separations1, energy storage2 and electronics3. Because the performance of these applications relies heavily on the size of the nanopores, it is desirable to design and engineer with precision a suitable nanopore size with narrow size distributions. However, conventional top-down processes often yield log-normal distributions with long tails, particularly at the sub-nanometre scale4. Moreover, the size distribution and density of the nanopores are often intrinsically intercorrelated, leading to a trade-off between the two that substantially limits their applications5-9. Here we report a cascaded compression approach to narrowing the size distribution of nanopores with left skewness and ultrasmall tail deviation, while keeping the density of nanopores increasing at each compression cycle. The formation of nanopores is split into many small steps, in each of which the size distribution of all the existing nanopores is compressed by a combination of shrinkage and expansion and, at the same time as expansion, a new batch of nanopores is created, leading to increased nanopore density by each cycle. As a result, high-density nanopores in monolayer graphene with a left-skewed, short-tail size distribution are obtained that show ultrafast and ångström-size-tunable selective transport of ions and molecules, breaking the limitation of the conventional log-normal size distribution9,10. This method allows for independent control of several metrics of the generated nanopores, including the density, mean diameter, standard deviation and skewness of the size distribution, which will lead to the next leap in nanotechnology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiangtao Wang
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Chi Cheng
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
- School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
| | - Xudong Zheng
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Juan Carlos Idrobo
- Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Ang-Yu Lu
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Ji-Hoon Park
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Bong Gyu Shin
- Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany
- SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon, Republic of Korea
| | - Soon Jung Jung
- Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Tianyi Zhang
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Haozhe Wang
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Guanhui Gao
- Materials Science and NanoEngineering Department, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Bongki Shin
- Materials Science and NanoEngineering Department, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Xiang Jin
- Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Long Ju
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Yimo Han
- Materials Science and NanoEngineering Department, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Lain-Jong Li
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Rohit Karnik
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jing Kong
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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8
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Bondaz L, Ronghe A, Li S, Čerņevičs K, Hao J, Yazyev OV, Ayappa KG, Agrawal KV. Selective Photonic Gasification of Strained Oxygen Clusters on Graphene for Tuning Pore Size in the Å Regime. JACS AU 2023; 3:2844-2854. [PMID: 37885574 PMCID: PMC10598578 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.3c00395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Revised: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
Controlling the size of single-digit pores, such as those in graphene, with an Å resolution has been challenging due to the limited understanding of pore evolution at the atomic scale. The controlled oxidation of graphene has led to Å-scale pores; however, obtaining a fine control over pore evolution from the pore precursor (i.e., the oxygen cluster) is very attractive. Herein, we introduce a novel "control knob" for gasifying clusters to form pores. We show that the cluster evolves into a core/shell structure composed of an epoxy group surrounding an ether core in a bid to reduce the lattice strain at the cluster core. We then selectively gasified the strained core by exposing it to 3.2 eV of light at room temperature. This allowed for pore formation with improved control compared to thermal gasification. This is because, for the latter, cluster-cluster coalescence via thermally promoted epoxy diffusion cannot be ruled out. Using the oxidation temperature as a control knob, we were able to systematically increase the pore density while maintaining a narrow size distribution. This allowed us to increase H2 permeance as well as H2 selectivity. We further show that these pores could differentiate CH4 from N2, which is considered to be a challenging separation. Dedicated molecular dynamics simulations and potential of mean force calculations revealed that the free energy barrier for CH4 translocation through the pores was lower than that for N2. Overall, this study will inspire research on the controlled manipulation of clusters for improved precision in incorporating Å-scale pores in graphene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luc Bondaz
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, Institute of Chemical
Sciences & Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale
de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Anshaj Ronghe
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, Institute of Chemical
Sciences & Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale
de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | | | - Jian Hao
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, Institute of Chemical
Sciences & Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale
de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Oleg V. Yazyev
- Institute
of Physics, EPFL, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - K. Ganapathy Ayappa
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, Institute of Chemical
Sciences & Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale
de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
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9
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Vahdat MT, Li S, Huang S, Pignedoli CA, Marzari N, Agrawal KV. Unraveling the Oxidation of a Graphitic Lattice: Structure Determination of Oxygen Clusters. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023; 131:168001. [PMID: 37925704 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.131.168001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
Unraveling the oxidation of graphitic lattice is of great interest for atomic-scale lattice manipulation. Herein, we build epoxy cluster, atom by atom, using Van der Waals' density-functional theory aided by Clar's aromatic π-sextet rule. We predict the formation of cyclic epoxy trimers and its linear chains propagating along the armchair direction of the lattice to minimize the system's energy. Using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy on oxidized graphitic lattice, we identify linear chains as bright features that have a threefold symmetry, and which exclusively run along the armchair direction of the lattice confirming the theoretical predictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Tohidi Vahdat
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
- Theory and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Shiqi Huang
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Carlo A Pignedoli
- Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Marzari
- Theory and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1950 Sion, Switzerland
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10
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Jiang H, Hou Y, Liu Z, Yuan R, Du Y, Ji X, Sheng Z, Zhang X. Liquid-in-Aerogel Porous Composite Allows Efficient CO 2 Capture and CO 2 /N 2 Separation. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2023; 19:e2302627. [PMID: 37287342 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202302627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The pursuit of efficient CO2 capture materials remains an unmet challenge. Especially, meeting both high sorption capacity and fast uptake kinetics is an ongoing effort in the development of CO2 sorbents. Here, a strategy to exploit liquid-in-aerogel porous composites (LIAPCs) that allow for highly effective CO2 capture and selective CO2 /N2 separation, is reported. Interestingly, the functional liquid tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) is partially filled into the air pockets of SiO2 aerogel with left permanent porosity. Notably, the confined liquid thickness is 10.9-19.5 nm, which can be vividly probed by the atomic force microscope and rationalized by tailoring the liquid composition and amount. LIAPCs achieve high affinity between the functional liquid and solid porous counterpart, good structure integrity, and robust thermal stability. LIAPCs exhibit superb CO2 uptake capacity (5.44 mmol g-1 , 75 °C, and 15 vol% CO2 ), fast sorption kinetics, and high amine efficiency. Furthermore, LIAPCs ensure long-term adsorption-desorption cycle stability and offer exceptional CO2 /N2 selectivity both in dry and humid conditions, with a separation factor up to 1182.68 at a humidity of 1%. This approach offers the prospect of efficient CO2 capture and gas separation, shedding light on new possibilities to make the next-generation sorption materials for CO2 utilization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haotian Jiang
- School of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Yinglai Hou
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Zengwei Liu
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Ruizhe Yuan
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Yu Du
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Xiaofei Ji
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Zhizhi Sheng
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
| | - Xuetong Zhang
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China
- Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, University College London, London, NW3 2PF, UK
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11
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Thomas S, Silmore KS, Sharma P, Govind Rajan A. Enumerating Stable Nanopores in Graphene and Their Geometrical Properties Using the Combinatorics of Hexagonal Lattices. J Chem Inf Model 2023; 63:870-881. [PMID: 36638043 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c01306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Nanopores in two-dimensional (2D) materials, including graphene, can be used for a variety of applications, such as gas separations, water desalination, and DNA sequencing. So far, however, all plausible isomeric shapes of graphene nanopores have not been enumerated. Instead, a probabilistic approach has been followed to predict nanopore shapes in 2D materials, due to the exponential increase in the number of nanopores as the size of the vacancy increases. For example, there are 12 possible isomers when N = 6 atoms are removed, a number that theoretically increases to 11.7 million when N = 20 atoms are removed from the graphene lattice. In this regard, the development of a smaller, exhaustive data set of stable nanopore shapes can help future experimental and theoretical studies focused on using nanoporous 2D materials in various applications. In this work, we use the theory of 2D triangular "lattice animals" to create a library of all stable graphene nanopore shapes based on a modification of a well-known algorithm in the mathematical combinatorics of polyforms known as Redelmeier's algorithm. We show that there exists a correspondence between graphene nanopores and triangular polyforms (called polyiamonds) as well as hexagonal polyforms (called polyhexes). We develop the concept of a polyiamond ID to identify unique nanopore isomers. We also use concepts from polyiamond and polyhex geometries to eliminate unstable nanopores containing dangling atoms, bonds, and moieties. We verify using density functional theory calculations that such pores are indeed unstable. The exclusion of these unstable nanopores leads to a remarkable reduction in the possible nanopores from 11.7 million for N = 20 to only 0.184 million nanopores, thereby indicating that the number of stable nanopores is almost 2 orders of magnitude lower and is much more tractable. Not only that, by extracting the polyhex outline, our algorithm allows searching for nanopores with dimensions and shape factors in a specified range, thus aiding the design of the geometrical properties of nanopores for specific applications. We also provide the coordinate files of the stable nanopores as a library to facilitate future theoretical studies of these nanopores.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sneha Thomas
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhauri, Madhya Pradesh462066, India.,Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka560012, India
| | - Kevin S Silmore
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts02139, United States
| | - Piyush Sharma
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka560012, India
| | - Ananth Govind Rajan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka560012, India
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12
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Towards large-scale application of nanoporous materials in membranes for separation of energy-relevant gas mixtures. Sep Purif Technol 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2022.122919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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13
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Huang S, Villalobos LF, Li S, Vahdat MT, Chi HY, Hsu KJ, Bondaz L, Boureau V, Marzari N, Agrawal KV. In Situ Nucleation-Decoupled and Site-Specific Incorporation of Å-Scale Pores in Graphene Via Epoxidation. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2022; 34:e2206627. [PMID: 36271513 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202206627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 10/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Generating pores in graphene by decoupled nucleation and expansion is desired to achieve a fine control over the porosity, and is desired to advance several applications. Herein, epoxidation is introduced, which is the formation of nanosized epoxy clusters on the graphitic lattice as nucleation sites without forming pores. In situ gasification of clusters inside a transmission electron microscope shows that pores are generated precisely at the site of the clusters by surpassing an energy barrier of 1.3 eV. Binding energy predictions using ab initio calculations combined with the cluster nucleation theory reveal the structure of the epoxy clusters and indicate that the critical cluster is an epoxy dimer. Finally, it is shown that the cluster gasification can be manipulated to form Å-scale pores which then effectively sieve gas molecules based on their size. This decoupled cluster nucleation and pore formation will likely pave the way for an independent control of pore size and density.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiqi Huang
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Mohammad Tohidi Vahdat
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
- Theory and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Heng-Yu Chi
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Luc Bondaz
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Victor Boureau
- Interdisciplinary Center for Electron Microscopy, EPFL, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Marzari
- Theory and Simulation of Materials (THEOS) and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), EPFL, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion, CH-1950, Switzerland
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14
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Villalobos LF, Babu DJ, Hsu KJ, Van Goethem C, Agrawal KV. Gas Separation Membranes with Atom-Thick Nanopores: The Potential of Nanoporous Single-Layer Graphene. ACCOUNTS OF MATERIALS RESEARCH 2022; 3:1073-1087. [PMID: 36338295 PMCID: PMC9623591 DOI: 10.1021/accountsmr.2c00143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Revised: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Gas separation is one of the most important industrial processes and is poised to take a larger role in the transition to renewable energy, e.g., carbon capture and hydrogen purification. Conventional gas separation processes involving cryogenic distillation, solvents, and sorbents are energy intensive, and as a result, the energy footprint of gas separations in the chemical industry is extraordinarily high. This has motivated fundamental research toward the development of novel materials for high-performance membranes to improve the energy efficiency of gas separation. These novel materials are expected to overcome the intrinsic limitations of the conventional membrane material, i.e., polymers, where a longstanding trade-off between the separation selectivity and the permeance has motivated research into nanoporous materials as the selective layer for the membranes. In this context, atom-thick materials such as nanoporous single-layer graphene constitute the ultimate limit for the selective layer. Gas transport from atom-thick nanopores is extremely fast, dependent primarily on the energy barrier that the gas molecule experiences in translocating the nanopore. Consequently, the difference in the energy barriers for two gas molecules determines the gas pair selectivity. In this Account, we summarize the development in the field of nanoporous single-layer graphene membranes for gas separation. We start by discussing the mechanism for gas transport across atom-thick nanopores, which then yields the crucial design elements needed to achieve high-performance membranes: (i) nanopores with an adequate electron-density gap to sieve the desired gas component (e.g., smaller than 0.289, 0.33, 0.346, 0.362, and 0.38 nm for H2, CO2, O2, N2, and CH4, respectively), (ii) narrow pore size distribution to limit the nonselective effusive transport from the tail end of the distribution, and (iii) high density of selective pores. We discuss and compare the state-of-the-art bottom-up and top-down routes for the synthesis of nanoporous graphene films. Mechanistic insights and parameters controlling the size, distribution, and density of nanopores are discussed. Fundamental insights are provided into the reaction of ozone with graphene, which has been successfully used by our group to develop membranes with record-high carbon capture performance. Postsynthetic modifications, which allow the tuning of the transport by (i) tailoring the relative contributions of adsorbed-phase and gas-phase transport, (ii) competitive adsorption, and (iii) molecular cutoff adjustment, are discussed. Finally, we discuss practical aspects that are crucial in successfully preparing practical membranes using atom-thick materials as the selective layer, allowing the eventual scale-up of these membranes. Crack- and tear-free preparation of membranes is discussed using the approach of mechanical reinforcement of graphene with nanoporous carbon and polymers, which led to the first reports of millimeter- and centimeter-scale gas-sieving membranes in the year 2018 and 2021, respectively. We conclude with insights and perspectives highlighting the key scientific and technological gaps that must be addressed in the future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Deepu J. Babu
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion 1950, Switzerland
- Department
of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana 502 284, India
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Cédric Van Goethem
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion 1950, Switzerland
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15
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Lee WC, Ronghe A, Villalobos LF, Huang S, Dakhchoune M, Mensi M, Hsu KJ, Ayappa KG, Agrawal KV. Enhanced Water Evaporation from Å-Scale Graphene Nanopores. ACS NANO 2022; 16:15382-15396. [PMID: 36000823 PMCID: PMC9527801 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c07193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/19/2022] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Enhancing the kinetics of liquid-vapor transition from nanoscale confinements is an attractive strategy for developing evaporation and separation applications. The ultimate limit of confinement for evaporation is an atom thick interface hosting angstrom-scale nanopores. Herein, using a combined experimental/computational approach, we report highly enhanced water evaporation rates when angstrom sized oxygen-functionalized graphene nanopores are placed at the liquid-vapor interface. The evaporation flux increases for the smaller nanopores with an enhancement up to 35-fold with respect to the bare liquid-vapor interface. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that oxygen-functionalized nanopores render rapid rotational and translational dynamics to the water molecules due to a reduced and short-lived water-water hydrogen bonding. The potential of mean force (PMF) reveals that the free energy barrier for water evaporation decreases in the presence of nanopores at the atomically thin interface, which further explains the enhancement in evaporation flux. These findings can enable the development of energy-efficient technologies relying on water evaporation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wan-Chi Lee
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Anshaj Ronghe
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Shiqi Huang
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Mostapha Dakhchoune
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Mounir Mensi
- Institut
des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques (ISIC), EPFL, Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - K. Ganapathy Ayappa
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
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16
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Yuan Z, He G, Li SX, Misra RP, Strano MS, Blankschtein D. Gas Separations using Nanoporous Atomically Thin Membranes: Recent Theoretical, Simulation, and Experimental Advances. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2022; 34:e2201472. [PMID: 35389537 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202201472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Revised: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Porous graphene and other atomically thin 2D materials are regarded as highly promising membrane materials for high-performance gas separations due to their atomic thickness, large-scale synthesizability, excellent mechanical strength, and chemical stability. When these atomically thin materials contain a high areal density of gas-sieving nanoscale pores, they can exhibit both high gas permeances and high selectivities, which is beneficial for reducing the cost of gas-separation processes. Here, recent modeling and experimental advances in nanoporous atomically thin membranes for gas separations is discussed. The major challenges involved, including controlling pore size distributions, scaling up the membrane area, and matching theory with experimental results, are also highlighted. Finally, important future directions are proposed for real gas-separation applications of nanoporous atomically thin membranes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Yuan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Guangwei He
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Sylvia Xin Li
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Rahul Prasanna Misra
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Michael S Strano
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Daniel Blankschtein
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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17
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Kukobat R, Sakai M, Tanaka H, Otsuka H, Vallejos-Burgos F, Lastoskie C, Matsukata M, Sasaki Y, Yoshida K, Hayashi T, Kaneko K. Ultrapermeable 2D-channeled graphene-wrapped zeolite molecular sieving membranes for hydrogen separation. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabl3521. [PMID: 35584226 PMCID: PMC9116883 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl3521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The efficient separation of hydrogen from methane and light hydrocarbons for clean energy applications remains a technical challenge in membrane science. To address this issue, we prepared a graphene-wrapped MFI (G-MFI) molecular-sieving membrane for the ultrafast separation of hydrogen from methane at a permeability reaching 5.8 × 106 barrers at a single gas selectivity of 245 and a mixed gas selectivity of 50. Our results set an upper bound for hydrogen separation. Efficient molecular sieving comes from the subnanoscale interfacial space between graphene and zeolite crystal faces according to molecular dynamic simulations. The hierarchical pore structure of the G-MFI membrane enabled rapid permeability, indicating a promising route for the ultrafast separation of hydrogen/methane and carbon dioxide/methane in view of energy-efficient industrial gas separation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Radovan Kukobat
- Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
- Center for Biomedical Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Banja Luka, Save Mrkalja 14, Banja Luka 78000, Bosnia and Herzegovina
| | - Motomu Sakai
- Research Organization for Nano and Life Innovation, Waseda University, 513 Waseda-Tsurumaki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0041, Japan
| | - Hideki Tanaka
- Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
| | - Hayato Otsuka
- Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
| | - Fernando Vallejos-Burgos
- Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
- Morgan Advanced Materials, Carbon Science Centre of Excellence, 310 Innovation Blvd., Suite 250, State College, PA 16803, USA
| | - Christian Lastoskie
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, 1351 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2125, USA
| | - Masahiko Matsukata
- Research Organization for Nano and Life Innovation, Waseda University, 513 Waseda-Tsurumaki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0041, Japan
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Waseda University, 513 Wasedatsurumaki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0041, Japan
- Advanced Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 513 Wasedatsurumaki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0041, Japan
| | - Yukichi Sasaki
- Nanostructures Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, 2-4-1 Mutsuno, Atsuta-ku, Nagoya 456-8587, Japan
| | - Kaname Yoshida
- Nanostructures Research Laboratory, Japan Fine Ceramics Center, 2-4-1 Mutsuno, Atsuta-ku, Nagoya 456-8587, Japan
| | - Takuya Hayashi
- Department of Water Environment and Civil Engineering, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
| | - Katsumi Kaneko
- Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
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18
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Lim YJ, Goh K, Wang R. The coming of age of water channels for separation membranes: from biological to biomimetic to synthetic. Chem Soc Rev 2022; 51:4537-4582. [PMID: 35575174 DOI: 10.1039/d1cs01061a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Water channels are one of the key pillars driving the development of next-generation desalination and water treatment membranes. Over the past two decades, the rise of nanotechnology has brought together an abundance of multifunctional nanochannels that are poised to reinvent separation membranes with performances exceeding those of state-of-the-art polymeric membranes within the water-energy nexus. Today, these water nanochannels can be broadly categorized into biological, biomimetic and synthetic, owing to their different natures, physicochemical properties and methods for membrane nanoarchitectonics. Furthermore, against the backdrop of different separation mechanisms, different types of nanochannel exhibit unique merits and limitations, which determine their usability and suitability for different membrane designs. Herein, this review outlines the progress of a comprehensive amount of nanochannels, which include aquaporins, pillar[5]arenes, I-quartets, different types of nanotubes and their porins, graphene-based materials, metal- and covalent-organic frameworks, porous organic cages, MoS2, and MXenes, offering a comparative glimpse into where their potential lies. First, we map out the background by looking into the evolution of nanochannels over the years, before discussing their latest developments by focusing on the key physicochemical and intrinsic transport properties of these channels from the chemistry standpoint. Next, we put into perspective the fabrication methods that can nanoarchitecture water channels into high-performance nanochannel-enabled membranes, focusing especially on the distinct differences of each type of nanochannel and how they can be leveraged to unlock the as-promised high water transport potential in current mainstream membrane designs. Lastly, we critically evaluate recent findings to provide a holistic qualitative assessment of the nanochannels with respect to the attributes that are most strongly valued in membrane engineering, before discussing upcoming challenges to share our perspectives with researchers for pathing future directions in this coming of age of water channels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Jie Lim
- Singapore Membrane Technology Center, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 637141, Singapore. .,School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore.,Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme, Graduate College, Nanyang Technological University, 637553, Singapore
| | - Kunli Goh
- Singapore Membrane Technology Center, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 637141, Singapore.
| | - Rong Wang
- Singapore Membrane Technology Center, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 637141, Singapore. .,School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore
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19
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Sheshanarayana R, Govind Rajan A. Tailoring Nanoporous Graphene via Machine Learning: Predicting Probabilities and Formation Times of Arbitrary Nanopore Shapes. J Chem Phys 2022; 156:204703. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0089469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Nanopores in graphene, a 2D material, are currently being explored for various applications, such as gas separation, water desalination, and DNA sequencing. The shapes and sizes of nanopores play a major role in determining the performance of devices made out of graphene. However, given an arbitrary nanopore shape, anticipating its creation probability and formation time are challenging inverse problems, solving which could help develop theoretical models for nanoporous graphene and guide experiments in tailoring pore sizes/shapes. In this work, we develop a machine learning (ML) framework to predict these target variables, based on data generated using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and chemical graph theory. Thereby, we enable the rapid quantification of the ease of formation of a given nanopore shape in graphene via silicon-catalyzed electron-beam etching and provide an experimental handle to realize it in practice. We use structural features such as the number of carbon atoms removed, the number of edge atoms, the diameter of the nanopore, and its shape factor, which can be readily extracted from the nanopore shape. We show that the trained models can accurately predict nanopore probabilities and formation times with R2 values on the test set of 0.97 and 0.95, respectively. Not only that, we obtain physical insight into the working of the model and discuss the role played by the various structural features in modulating nanopore formation. Overall, our work provides a solid foundation for experimental studies to manipulate nanopore sizes/shapes and for theoretical studies to consider realistic structures of nanopores in graphene.
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20
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Luan B, Elmegreen B, Kuroda MA, Gu Z, Lin G, Zeng S. Crown Nanopores in Graphene for CO 2 Capture and Filtration. ACS NANO 2022; 16:6274-6281. [PMID: 35324145 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c00213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
With growing concerns about global warming, it has become urgent and critical to capture carbon from various emission sources (such as power plants) and even directly from air. Recent advances in materials research permit the design of various efficient approaches for capturing CO2 with high selectivity over other gases. Here, we show that crown nanopores (resembling crown ethers) embedded in graphene can efficaciously allow CO2 to pass and block other flue gas components (such as N2 and O2). We carried out extensive density functional theory-based calculations as well as classical and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to reveal the energetics and dynamics of gas transport through crown nanopores. Our results highlight that the designed crown nanopores in graphene possess not only an excellent selectivity for CO2 separation/capture but also fast transport (flow) rates, which are ideal for the treatment of flue gas in power plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binquan Luan
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Bruce Elmegreen
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Marcelo A Kuroda
- Department of Physics, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, United States
| | - Zonglin Gu
- College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225009, China
| | - Guojun Lin
- College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225009, China
| | - Shuming Zeng
- College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225009, China
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21
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Rezaei M, Villalobos LF, Hsu K, Agrawal KV. Demonstrating and Unraveling a Controlled Nanometer‐Scale Expansion of the Vacancy Defects in Graphene by CO
2. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2022; 61:e202200321. [PMID: 35244325 PMCID: PMC9313848 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202200321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
A controlled manipulation of graphene edges and vacancies is desired for molecular separation, sensing and electronics applications. Unfortunately, available etching methods always lead to vacancy nucleation making it challenging to control etching. Herein, we report CO2‐led controlled etching down to 2–3 Å per minute while completely avoiding vacancy nucleation. This makes CO2 a unique etchant for decoupling pore nucleation and expansion. We show that CO2 expands the steric‐hindrance‐free edges with an activation energy of 2.71 eV, corresponding to the energy barrier for the dissociative chemisorption of CO2. We demonstrate the presence of an additional configurational energy barrier for nanometer‐sized vacancies resulting in a significantly slower rate of expansion. Finally, CO2 etching is applied to map the location of the intrinsic vacancies in the polycrystalline graphene film where we show that the intrinsic vacancy defects manifest mainly as grain boundary defects where intragrain defects from oxidative etching constitute a minor population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mojtaba Rezaei
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS) École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 1950 Sion Switzerland
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS) École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 1950 Sion Switzerland
| | - Kuang‐Jung Hsu
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS) École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 1950 Sion Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory of Advanced Separations (LAS) École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 1950 Sion Switzerland
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22
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Li S, Vahdat MT, Huang S, Hsu KJ, Rezaei M, Mensi M, Marzari N, Agrawal KV. Structure Evolution of Graphitic Surface upon Oxidation: Insights by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. JACS AU 2022; 2:723-730. [PMID: 35373205 PMCID: PMC8970004 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Oxidation of graphitic materials has been studied for more than a century to synthesize materials such as graphene oxide, nanoporous graphene, and to cut or unzip carbon nanotubes. However, the understanding of the early stages of oxidation is limited to theoretical studies, and experimental validation has been elusive. This is due to (i) challenging sample preparation for characterization because of the presence of highly mobile and reactive epoxy groups formed during oxidation, and (ii) gasification of the functional groups during imaging with atomic resolution, e.g., by transmission electron microscopy. Herein, we utilize a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (LT-STM) operating at 4 K to solve the structure of epoxy clusters form upon oxidation. Three distinct nanostructures corresponding to three stages of evolution of vacancy defects are found by quantitatively verifying the experimental data by the van der Waals density functional theory. The smallest cluster is a cyclic epoxy trimer. Their observation validates the theoretical prediction that epoxy trimers minimize the energy in the cyclic structure. The trimers grow into honeycomb superstructures to form larger clusters (1-3 nm). Vacancy defects evolve only in the larger clusters (2-3 nm) in the middle of the cluster, highlighting the role of lattice strain in the generation of vacancies. Semiquinone groups are also present and are assigned at the carbon edge in the vacancy defects. Upon heating to 800 °C, we observe cluster-free vacancy defects resulting from the loss of the entire epoxy population, indicating a reversible functionalization of epoxy groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaoxian Li
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Mohammad Tohidi Vahdat
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
- Theory
and Simulation of Materials (THEOS), National Centre for Computational
Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Shiqi Huang
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Mojtaba Rezaei
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Mounir Mensi
- Institut
des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques (ISIC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Marzari
- Theory
and Simulation of Materials (THEOS), National Centre for Computational
Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Sion 1950, Switzerland
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23
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Rezaei M, Villalobos LF, Hsu KJ, Agrawal KV. Demonstrating and Unraveling a Controlled Nanometer‐Scale Expansion of the Vacancy Defects in Graphene by CO2. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ange.202200321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Mojtaba Rezaei
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Chemistry and chemical engineering SWITZERLAND
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering SWITZERLAND
| | - Kuang-Jung Hsu
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering SWITZERLAND
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Institute of chemical sciences and engineering Rue de l'Industrie 17Case Postale 440Switzerland CH-1950 Sion SWITZERLAND
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24
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Micari M, Agrawal KV. Oxygen enrichment of air: Performance guidelines for membranes based on techno-economic assessment. J Memb Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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25
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Yuan Z, He G, Faucher S, Kuehne M, Li SX, Blankschtein D, Strano MS. Direct Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Porous Single-Layer Graphene Membranes with High Gas Permeances and Selectivities. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2021; 33:e2104308. [PMID: 34510595 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202104308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Single-layer graphene containing molecular-sized in-plane pores is regarded as a promising membrane material for high-performance gas separations due to its atomic thickness and low gas transport resistance. However, typical etching-based pore generation methods cannot decouple pore nucleation and pore growth, resulting in a trade-off between high areal pore density and high selectivity. In contrast, intrinsic pores in graphene formed during chemical vapor deposition are not created by etching. Therefore, intrinsically porous graphene can exhibit high pore density while maintaining its gas selectivity. In this work, the density of intrinsic graphene pores is systematically controlled for the first time, while appropriate pore sizes for gas sieving are precisely maintained. As a result, single-layer graphene membranes with the highest H2 /CH4 separation performances recorded to date (H2 permeance > 4000 GPU and H2 /CH4 selectivity > 2000) are fabricated by manipulating growth temperature, precursor concentration, and non-covalent decoration of the graphene surface. Moreover, it is identified that nanoscale molecular fouling of the graphene surface during gas separation where graphene pores are partially blocked by hydrocarbon contaminants under experimental conditions, controls both selectivity and temperature dependent permeance. Overall, the direct synthesis of porous single-layer graphene exploits its tremendous potential as high-performance gas-sieving membranes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Yuan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Guangwei He
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Samuel Faucher
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Matthias Kuehne
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Sylvia Xin Li
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Daniel Blankschtein
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Michael S Strano
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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26
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Huang S, Li S, Hsu KJ, Villalobos LF, Agrawal KV. Systematic design of millisecond gasification reactor for the incorporation of gas-sieving nanopores in single-layer graphene. J Memb Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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27
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Hsu KJ, Villalobos LF, Huang S, Chi HY, Dakhchoune M, Lee WC, He G, Mensi M, Agrawal KV. Multipulsed Millisecond Ozone Gasification for Predictable Tuning of Nucleation and Nucleation-Decoupled Nanopore Expansion in Graphene for Carbon Capture. ACS NANO 2021; 15:13230-13239. [PMID: 34319081 PMCID: PMC8388115 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c02927] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Predictable and tunable etching of angstrom-scale nanopores in single-layer graphene (SLG) can allow one to realize high-performance gas separation even from similar-sized molecules. We advance toward this goal by developing two etching regimes for SLG where the incorporation of angstrom-scale vacancy defects can be controlled. We screen several exposure profiles for the etchant, controlled by a multipulse millisecond treatment, using a mathematical model predicting the nucleation and pore expansion rates. The screened profiles yield a narrow pore-size-distribution (PSD) with a majority of defects smaller than missing 16 carbon atoms, suitable for CO2/N2 separation, attributing to the reduced pore expansion rate at a high pore density. Resulting nanoporous SLG (N-SLG) membranes yield attractive CO2 permeance of 4400 ± 2070 GPU and CO2/N2 selectivity of 33.4 ± 7.9. In the second etching regime, by limiting the supply of the etchant, the nanopores are allowed to expand while suppressing the nucleation events. Extremely attractive carbon capture performance marked with CO2 permeance of 8730 GPU, and CO2/N2 selectivity of 33.4 is obtained when CO2-selective polymeric chains are functionalized on the expanded nanopores. We show that the etching strategy is uniform and scalable by successfully fabricating high-performance centimeter-scale membrane.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kuang-Jung Hsu
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Luis Francisco Villalobos
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Shiqi Huang
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Heng-Yu Chi
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Mostapha Dakhchoune
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Wan-Chi Lee
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Guangwei He
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Mounir Mensi
- Institut
des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Kumar Varoon Agrawal
- Laboratory
of Advanced Separations (LAS), École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l’Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland
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28
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Rajput NS, Al Zadjali S, Gutierrez M, Esawi AMK, Al Teneiji M. Synthesis of holey graphene for advanced nanotechnological applications. RSC Adv 2021; 11:27381-27405. [PMID: 35480691 PMCID: PMC9037835 DOI: 10.1039/d1ra05157a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Holey or porous graphene, a structural derivative of graphene, has attracted immense attention due to its unique properties and potential applications in different branches of science and technology. In this review, the synthesis methods of holey or porous graphene/graphene oxide are systematically summarized and their potential applications in different areas are discussed. The process-structure-applications are explained, which helps relate the synthesis approaches to their corresponding key applications. The review paper is anticipated to benefit the readers in understanding the different synthesis methods of holey graphene, their key parameters to control the pore size distribution, advantages and limitations, and their potential applications in various fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nitul S Rajput
- Advanced Materials Research Center, Technology Innovation Institute Building B04C Abu Dhabi 9639 United Arab Emirates
| | - Shroq Al Zadjali
- Advanced Materials Research Center, Technology Innovation Institute Building B04C Abu Dhabi 9639 United Arab Emirates
| | - Monserrat Gutierrez
- Advanced Materials Research Center, Technology Innovation Institute Building B04C Abu Dhabi 9639 United Arab Emirates
| | - Amal M K Esawi
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Sciences and Engineering, The American University in Cairo Cairo 11835 Egypt
| | - Mohamed Al Teneiji
- Advanced Materials Research Center, Technology Innovation Institute Building B04C Abu Dhabi 9639 United Arab Emirates
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29
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Micari M, Dakhchoune M, Agrawal K. Techno-economic assessment of postcombustion carbon capture using high-performance nanoporous single-layer graphene membranes. J Memb Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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