Abstract
Microporous framework materials, particularly in their nanosheet form, are promising building blocks for the construction of continuous molecular-sieving membranes and films, enabling a wide range of applications. However, the limited availability of such microporous nanosheets has restricted their broader use in the construction of microporous membranes. Herein, we introduce a topotactic conversion and induction (TCI) strategy that enables the rapid fabrication of ultrathin, continuous zeolite membranes on commercial substrates from heterogeneous zeolite nanosheets, thereby broadening the applicability of nanosheets in gas separation membranes. The versatility of the TCI route is demonstrated by constructing continuous CHA and MEL zeolite membranes through MFI-to-CHA and MFI-to-MEL conversions. This TCI route has the potential to enhance the fabrication of ultrathin, continuous and nanosheet-based microporous membranes and films for diverse applications. Using this route in an active gel, the all-silica CHA (Si-CHA) membrane exhibits CO2 permeance of ~8800 GPU and CO2/CH4 selectivity exceeding 1000. This separation performance index is substantially higher than previously reported values for CO2/CH4 separation. Additionally, the fabricated membranes demonstrate high separation performance among reported membrane configurations for CO2/N2 separation. Techno-economic analysis indicates that these membranes could reduce CH4 decarbonization cost by up to ~87% relative to amine absorption.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFB3810700, to R.Z.), Suzhou Laboratory (SK-1302-2025-007, to R.Z.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22378188, 22378189, 22208146, and U22A20414, to R.Z.), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology (BK20232010 and BG2024018, to R.Z.), the High-Performance Computing Center of Nanjing Tech University (computational resources to H.L.), and UB startup funds (to M.Y.).
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Wang, N., Liu, H., Zhao, Y. et al. Gas separation performance in ultrathin zeolite membranes by topotactic conversion and induction of nanosheets. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72768-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72768-z
