Accurate controlling of the transport channels in 2D nanosheet membranes for efficient H2 purification by Professor Yanying Wei

NTU MSE Seminar Hosted by Assistant Professor Shen Jie

Abstract

Hydrogen is widely regarded as a promising next-generation energy carrier for reducing carbon emissions. However, H2 production is often accompanied by CO₂, making efficient hydrogen purification essential. Membrane-based separation offers a green and energy-efficient route, but conventional polymer membranes are constrained by the permeability–selectivity trade-off. Two-dimensional nanosheet membranes, featuring atomic thickness and tunable in-plane/interlayer channels, provide an attractive platform for high-performance H₂ purification. Yet, precise regulation of their transport pathways and the corresponding separation mechanism remain challenging.

Here, we investigate channel regulation in 2D nanosheet membranes through solvent droplet dynamic control, linker polarity tuning, and in-plane nanopore engineering. Solvent droplet dynamics modulate the stacking of 2D metal-organic framework nanosheets, promoting mixed AA/AB stacking and broadening gas transport pathways. Linker polarity further enables continuous control over stacking modes: higher polarity increases steric hindrance, drives nanosheets toward AB stacking, adjusts the effective pore size, and enhances H2 molecular sieving. In addition, originally nonporous MXene nanosheets are engineered by O₃ treatment to create controllable in-plane nanopores, balancing in-plane and interlayer transport channels for efficient H₂/CO₂ separation. These studies provide general design strategies for high-performance 2D nanosheet membranes for hydrogen purification.  

Biography

Professor Yanying Wei
South China University of Technology

Prof. Yanying Wei is a doctoral supervisor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, and Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Product Technology. She has been selected as a Humboldt Fellow, a recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, a Young Scientist of the National Key R&D Program of China, a Distinguished Young Scholar of Guangdong Province, and a Young Pearl River Scholar of Guangdong Province. Her research focuses on two-dimensional (2D) material membranes, mainly addressing two key issues on the regulation of interlayer structures of 2D nanosheets and molecular transport mechanisms within confined nanochannels of 2D membranes. As a first or corresponding author, she has published more than 100 SCI papers in leading journals such as Nat. Sustain., Nat. Commun., Sci. Adv., AIChE J., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and J. Am. Chem. Soc. She has also co-authored two English-language books published by Wiley, filed 42 Chinese invention patents with 26 granted, filed two PCT patents, and contributed to three local or group standards.