Work

Room‐Temperature Deuterium Separation in van Der Waals Gap Engineered Vermiculite Quantum Sieves

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: As the demand for nuclear energy grows, enriching deuterium from hydrogen mixtures has become more important. However, traditional methods are either very energy‐intensive because they require extremely cold temperatures, or they don't separate deuterium (D 2 ) from regular hydrogen (H 2 ) very well, with a D 2 /H 2 selectivity of ≈0.71. To achieve efficient deuterium separation at room temperature, materials with very tiny spaces, on an atomic scale are needed. For the first time, a material with spaces just ≈2.1 Å (angstroms) wide is successfully created, which is similar in size to the wavelength of hydrogen isotopes at room temperature. This allows for efficient deuterium separation, with a much higher D 2 /H 2 selectivity of ≈2.20, meaning the material can separate deuterium from hydrogen much more effectively at room temperature. The smaller deuterium molecules are more likely to pass through these tiny spaces, showing that quantum effects play a key role in this process. In contrast, a material like graphene oxide, with larger spaces (≈4.0 Å), only shows a lower D 2 /H 2 selectivity of ≈1.17, indicating weaker quantum effects. This discovery suggests that materials with very small, atomic‐scale spaces can be key to efficient separation of hydrogen isotopes at room temperature.

Source: Small

DOI: 10.1002/smll.202412229

Authors: Saini Lalita, Rathi Aparna, Kaushik Suvigya, Li‐Hsien Yeh, Kalon Gopinadhan

Institutions: Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Membrane Separation and Gas Transport

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze