Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Direct Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Porous Single-Layer Graphene Membranes with High Gas Permeances and Selectivities

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials
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. Here 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.
Research Organization:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Army Research Office (ARO); German Research Foundation (DFG); National Science Foundation (NSF); Swiss National Science Foundation; US Army Research Laboratory (ARL); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0019112
OSTI ID:
1976195
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Issue: 44 Vol. 33; ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (79)

Membrane Technology and Applications book January 2004
Facile Synthesis of Nanostructured Carbon through Self-Assembly between Block Copolymers and Carbohydrates journal October 2007
Hydrogen Selective NH2-MIL-53(Al) MOF Membranes with High Permeability journal May 2012
Synergistic CO 2 ‐Sieving from Polymer with Intrinsic Microporosity Masking Nanoporous Single‐Layer Graphene journal August 2020
Self-Assembly of Thiourea-Crosslinked Graphene Oxide Framework Membranes toward Separation of Small Molecules journal March 2018
Facile Fabrication of Large-Area Atomically Thin Membranes by Direct Synthesis of Graphene with Nanoscale Porosity journal October 2018
Permeation and separation studies on microporous sol-gel modified ceramic membranes journal June 1995
Quantifying ion-induced defects and Raman relaxation length in graphene journal April 2010
Effects of Cu contamination on system reliability for graphene synthesis by chemical vapor deposition method journal February 2018
Hydrogen sieving from intrinsic defects of benzene-derived single-layer graphene journal November 2019
Hydrogen permeation studies of composite supported alumina-carbon molecular sieves membranes: Separation of diluted hydrogen from mixtures with methane journal May 2021
Synthesis, characterization, and gas permeation properties of a hydrogen permeable silica membrane supported on porous alumina journal March 2004
Hydrothermally stable silica–alumina composite membranes for hydrogen separation journal March 2008
The upper bound revisited journal July 2008
Fabrication and characterization of PPO/PVP blend carbon molecular sieve membranes for H2/N2 and H2/CH4 separation journal April 2011
Influence of sol–gel process parameters on the micro-structure and performance of hybrid silica membranes journal November 2013
Hybrid silica membranes with enhanced hydrogen and CO2 separation properties journal August 2015
Facile synthesis of zeolite FAU molecular sieve membranes on bio-adhesive polydopamine modified Al2O3 tubes journal November 2015
Enhanced H2/CH4 and H2/CO2 separation by carbon molecular sieve membrane coated on titania modified alumina support: Effects of TiO2 intermediate layer preparation variables on interfacial adhesion journal July 2016
Permeation properties of silica-zirconia composite membranes supported on porous alumina substrates journal March 2017
Synthesis and characterization of hydrogen selective silica membranes prepared by chemical vapor deposition of vinyltriethoxysilane journal March 2018
Hydrogen-sieving single-layer graphene membranes obtained by crystallographic and morphological optimization of catalytic copper foil journal October 2020
Synthesis of multi-layer zeolite LTA membranes with enhanced gas separation performance by using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane as interlayer journal December 2012
Influence of support morphology on the detemplation and permeation of ZSM-5 and SSZ-13 zeolite membranes journal October 2014
Pure silica CHA-type zeolite membranes for dry and humidified CO2/CH4 mixtures separation journal May 2018
Are Graphitic Surfaces Hydrophobic? journal November 2016
Fabrication, Pressure Testing, and Nanopore Formation of Single-Layer Graphene Membranes journal June 2017
Stable, Temperature-Dependent Gas Mixture Permeation and Separation through Suspended Nanoporous Single-Layer Graphene Membranes journal July 2018
Selective Etching of Graphene Membrane Nanopores: From Molecular Sieving to Extreme Permeance journal July 2020
ZnO Nanorod-Induced Heteroepitaxial Growth of SOD Type Co-Based Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Membranes for H 2 Separation journal January 2018
Predicting Gas Separation through Graphene Nanopore Ensembles with Realistic Pore Size Distributions journal January 2021
Molecular Sieving Across Centimeter-Scale Single-Layer Nanoporous Graphene Membranes journal May 2017
Mechanism and Prediction of Gas Permeation through Sub-Nanometer Graphene Pores: Comparison of Theory and Simulation journal July 2017
Controlling Fundamental Fluctuations for Reproducible Growth of Large Single-Crystal Graphene journal January 2018
Analytical Prediction of Gas Permeation through Graphene Nanopores of Varying Sizes: Understanding Transitions across Multiple Transport Regimes journal September 2019
Synthesis and Permeation Properties of a DDR-Type Zeolite Membrane for Separation of CO 2 /CH 4 Gaseous Mixtures journal October 2007
Use of Steam Activation as a Post-treatment Technique in the Preparation of Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes journal April 2012
Steam-Stable Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework ZIF-90 Membrane with Hydrogen Selectivity through Covalent Functionalization journal November 2010
Formation and Healing of Vacancies in Graphene Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Growth journal March 2013
Growth Intermediates for CVD Graphene on Cu(111): Carbon Clusters and Defective Graphene journal May 2013
Bicontinuous Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework ZIF-8@GO Membrane with Enhanced Hydrogen Selectivity journal October 2014
“Twin Copper Source” Growth of Metal−Organic Framework Membrane: Cu 3 (BTC) 2 with High Permeability and Selectivity for Recycling H 2 journal February 2009
Helium Separation Using Porous Graphene Membranes journal July 2010
No Graphene Etching in Purified Hydrogen journal March 2013
Quantifying Defects in Graphene via Raman Spectroscopy at Different Excitation Energies journal July 2011
Probing the Nature of Defects in Graphene by Raman Spectroscopy journal July 2012
Selective Ionic Transport through Tunable Subnanometer Pores in Single-Layer Graphene Membranes journal February 2014
Impermeable Atomic Membranes from Graphene Sheets journal August 2008
Structural Defects in Graphene journal November 2010
Implications of Permeation through Intrinsic Defects in Graphene on the Design of Defect-Tolerant Membranes for Gas Separation journal December 2013
Seven chemical separations to change the world journal April 2016
Effect of airborne contaminants on the wettability of supported graphene and graphite journal July 2013
Selective molecular sieving through porous graphene journal October 2012
Molecular valves for controlling gas phase transport made from discrete ångström-sized pores in graphene journal August 2015
Ultrafast growth of single-crystal graphene assisted by a continuous oxygen supply journal August 2016
Fundamental transport mechanisms, fabrication and potential applications of nanoporous atomically thin membranes journal June 2017
Single-layer graphene membranes by crack-free transfer for gas mixture separation journal July 2018
Addressing the isomer cataloguing problem for nanopores in two-dimensional materials journal January 2019
Limits on gas impermeability of graphene journal March 2020
Impact of growth rate on graphene lattice-defect formation within a single crystalline domain journal March 2018
Elementary Process for CVD Graphene on Cu(110): Size-selective Carbon Clusters journal March 2014
Highly selective sieving of small gas molecules by using an ultra-microporous metal–organic framework membrane journal January 2014
Improved AlPO-18 membranes for light gas separation journal January 2015
High-permeance polymer-functionalized single-layer graphene membranes that surpass the postcombustion carbon capture target journal January 2019
Atom-by-atom nucleation and growth of graphene nanopores journal April 2012
Correlating defect density with carrier mobility in large-scaled graphene films: Raman spectral signatures for the estimation of defect density journal October 2010
Knudsen effusion through polymer-coated three-layer porous graphene membranes journal April 2017
Relation between growth rate and structure of graphene grown in a 4″ showerhead chemical vapor deposition reactor journal April 2017
Efficient Defect Healing in Catalytic Carbon Nanotube Growth journal June 2012
Etching gas-sieving nanopores in single-layer graphene with an angstrom precision for high-performance gas mixture separation journal January 2019
Millisecond lattice gasification for high-density CO 2 - and O 2 -sieving nanopores in single-layer graphene journal February 2021
Large-Area Synthesis of High-Quality and Uniform Graphene Films on Copper Foils journal May 2009
Selective Gas Transport Through Few-Layered Graphene and Graphene Oxide Membranes journal October 2013
The Role of Surface Oxygen in the Growth of Large Single-Crystal Graphene on Copper journal October 2013
Ultimate Permeation Across Atomically Thin Porous Graphene journal April 2014
High-Selectivity, High-Flux Silica Membranes for Gas Separation journal March 1998
Maximizing the right stuff: The trade-off between membrane permeability and selectivity journal June 2017
Single- to Few-Layered, Graphene-Based Separation Membranes journal June 2018
Review of Membranes for Helium Separation and Purification journal February 2017