Graphene discovery could benefit natural gas production

The findings are claimed to be a significant step toward the realisation of more energy-efficient membranes for natural gas production and for reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from power plants.

Mechanical engineering professors Scott Bunch and John Pellegrino co-authored a paper in Nature Nanotechnology with graduate students Steven Koenig and Luda Wang detailing the experiments.

According to a statement, the research team introduced nanoscale pores into graphene sheets through ultraviolet light-induced oxidative ‘etching’ and then measured the permeability of various gases across the porous graphene membranes. 

Experiments were done with a range of gases including hydrogen, CO₂, argon, nitrogen, methane and sulphur hexaflouride — which range in size from 0.29nm to 0.49nm — to demonstrate the potential for separation based on molecular size.

‘These atomically thin, porous graphene membranes represent a new class of ideal molecular sieves, where gas transport occurs through pores which have a thickness and diameter on the atomic scale,’ said Bunch.