Selective Permeation under Low-Dimensional Confinement

In view of process intensification that membrane technology promises to bring in, it is crucial for membrane materials to attain great selectivity, enhanced permeation, and in-operando durability. To this end, understanding of transport phenomena at low dimensions could help renew our insight for membrane pore design. This talk presents selective transport phenomena across 0D, 1D and 2D confined space that atomically thin orifices, nanotubes and 2D material lamellae provide, respectively. As the pore dimension increases, permeation tends to decrease from ultimate permeation to fast transport to unimpeded diffusion, whereas selectivity increases inherently. Proper design of pores and membrane architecture can collaborate with process operation to further tailor the selectivity. Thus obtained knowledge could lay the cornerstone of advancing membrane transport properties toward process intensification.