Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Nanoporous Graphene Membranes for Hydrogen Separation

Hydrogen is one of the prime candidates for clean energy source with high energy density. However, current industrial methods of hydrogen production are difficult to provide hydrogen with high purity, thus there are hard to meet the requirements in many application scenarios. Consequently, the development of large-scale and low-cost hydrogen separation technology is urgently needed. In this work, the gas separation properties of a newly synthesized two-dimensional nanoporous graphene (NPG) membrane material with patterned dumbbell-shaped nanopores are investigated. The permeation energy barriers of different gases through this membrane are calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are also employed to study the permeation behavior of H2 in binary mixtures with O2, CO2, CO, and CH4. Both the DFT and MD calculation results show that this newly synthesized NPG membrane material can provide high permeability as well as ultrahigh selectivity simultaneously, making it a prospective H2 separation membrane with superior performance.