What happened
- On October 23, 2026, Nature Sustainability published work by 22 authors from Tianjin University, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Fudan and Nanjing Tech, among others.
- They coated graphene with a polymer-derived carbon layer just 2 nanometres thick, uniform and smooth, with a Young’s modulus of about 26.8 GPa.
- Controlled pyrolysis created precisely sized ultramicropores. The membrane showed selectivities above 60 for CO2 over nitrogen and above 70 for hydrogen over CO2 and for CO2 over methane.
- CO2 permeance reached 5,000 gas permeation units (GPU), which the authors say surpasses existing benchmarks.
Why it matters
- The authors present the membranes as an alternative to conventional chemical absorption, using less energy and easier to scale.
- Molecular thinness, precise pores and mechanical strength were a “trilemma” in separation science. Combining them in one sheet is the work’s contribution.
- It works on three different streams: flue gas, syngas and natural gas. That opens uses in power plants, chemical plants and natural gas cleanup.
The number
2 nanometres. Thickness of the carbon layer laid on the graphene.
Context
The method uses a “super-spreading” effect of the polymer on graphene to get a uniform, smooth layer before turning it into carbon. Controlled pyrolysis then sets the pore size.
What’s next
- No industrial pilot timeline announced.
- The abstract reports no cost per square metre or maximum area produced.
Bottom line
Massachusetts asked data centres for their own clean power, and a study in Science showed that warming halted the regrowth of the Barnes ice cap: pressure to cut emissions comes from both regulation and data.
Sources
- Nature Sustainability — Efficient carbon dioxide separation with molecularly thin bilayer carbon membranes (DOI 10.1038/s41893-026-01973-x; October 23, 2026)
- Cover image: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Edited by Rodrigo Cornejo. How we select and verify: who writes these notes.
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