Porous Graphene as an Atmospheric Nanofilter

The fabrication of nanoscale membranes exhibiting high selectivity is an emerging field of research. The possibility to use bottom-up approaches to fabricate a filter with porous graphene and analyze its functionality with first principle calculations is investigated. Here, the porous network is produced by self-assembly of the hexaiodo-substituted macrocycle cyclohexa-m-phenylene (CHP). The resulting porous network exhibits an extremely high selectivity in favor of H-2 and He among other atmospheric gases, such as Ne, O-2, N-2, CO, CO2, NH3, and Ar. The presented membrane is superior to traditional filters using polymers or silica and could have great potential for further technological applications such as gas sensors or fuel cells.