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Two-dimensional sheets of zeolites can function as molecular sieves for applications such as membranes or as catalysts. Here, the authors demonstrate a method using electron diffraction patterns to accurately measure the thickness and wrinkles of thin zeolite nanosheets.

This Perspective explores the multiscale transport mechanisms of water and solutes in desalination and ion selective membranes, offering mechanistic insights to guide the design of next-generation membranes and nanoporous systems for applications in water purification, separations, and energy technologies.

Atom-thin graphene membranes for gas separation face scale-up challenges. The authors introduce scalable and reproducible approaches that simplify the fabrication of atom-thin porous graphene membranes, achieving membrane areas up to 50 cm² with promising performance for point-source carbon capture.

Porous graphene membranes are highly attractive for carbon capture. Here, the authors present a scalable room-temperature method to create ångström-sized pores in graphene, enabling efficient CO2 capture membranes with attractive performance.

Due to the very low CO₂ content in dilute flue gas emissions, membrane-based carbon capture is typically deemed infeasible. This uncertainty-aware techno-economic analysis suggests that pyridinic-graphene membranes, which perform better as CO₂ concentration decreases, offer a viable solution.

The true potential of graphene pores has remained unclear due to limited mechanistic studies on oxidation-created pores. Using molecular simulations, authors show dynamic behavior enabling CO₂ gating with high selectivity over O₂ and N₂.

The lack of reliable coating methods for amorphous zeolitic imidazolate framework (aZIF) materials hinders their development for applications such as photolithography and separation membranes. Supported by computational fluid dynamics modeling, the authors develop a spin-coating technique to deposit aZIF films from dilute precursors and demonstrate their wafer-scale use in advanced lithographic processes.

A vibrational spectroscopy technique is used to study vapour, liquid and solid water within isolated carbon nanotubes and reveals phase transitions that show an extreme sensitivity to nanotube diameter, with melting temperatures higher than 100 °C for 1.05 and 1.06 nm diameter nanotubes and below 0 °C for 1.24 and 1.44 nm diameter nanotubes.

The preparation of atom-thick lattices with Å-scale pores is desirable for achieving ion selectivity and high ion flux. Here authors present a cm-scale membrane made of atom-thick graphene film hosting zero-dimensional pores spanning only a few Å, repaired using an in situ electrochemical strategy, yielding high Li⁺/Mg²⁺ separation performance.

Graphene-based membranes are attractive for capturing CO₂, with separation selectivity typically achieved by control of pore size. Here Hsu et al. incorporate pyridinic nitrogen species at the pore edges in graphene, leading to competitive CO₂ binding and enhanced separation performance.

Atomically thin graphene membranes with sub-1-nm pores show promise for ion/molecular separation, osmotic energy generation, and energy storage. Here the authors present the fabrication of large-area nanoporous atomically thin graphene membranes with narrow pore size distributions and positive charges via a bottom-up molecular anchoring approach.

Unit-cell-thick films of metal–organic frameworks with ordered porosity would be attractive for membrane applications as these thin systems combine large molecular flux with high selectivity. Here crystalline ZIF films are grown on a crystalline substrate with high H₂/N₂ gas separation performance.

Graphene shows great promise for gas separation applications, but obtaining large membranes that are free of cracks and tears remains highly challenging. Here, the authors realize monolayer, crack-free, millimeter-scale graphene membranes that exhibit selective gas permeation solely thanks to their intrinsic defects

Zeolite membranes can be used for gas molecular sieving, but synthesis requires complex hydrothermal treatment. Here, single layers of zeolite precursor RUB-15 are exfoliated followed by a condensation reaction, forming zeolite membranes with H₂/CO₂ selectivity of 20 to 100 in a facile process.

Nanofluidics studies fluids in artificial nanopores, in which confinement and interfaces result in unique phenomena. This Primer looks at how to prepare nanostructures and probe fluid transport at the nanoscale, including scale-up strategies.