Single-crystal membrane for anisotropic and efficient gas permeation.

Development of gas separation materials has been one of the basic requirements of industry. Microporous materials have adequate pores for gas separation and have contributed to the advancement of gas purification techniques. Because the simplest and most economical method would be membrane separation, various microporous membranes have been prepared and explored for their separation properties. However, a key issue remains as to how to generate defect-free membranes with practical gas permeance. Here we report the preparation of a well-oriented single-crystal membrane with high permeance by using a flexible single crystal of Cu(2)(bza)(4)(pyz) possessing one-dimensional (1D) penetration channels; this membrane exhibits anisotropic gas permeation through the 1D channels with high permselectivity for H(2) and CO(2). Although the diameter of the neck of the narrow channels is smaller than the kinetic diameters of the sample gases, various gases pass through the 1D channels. This report provides a new way of developing gas permeation membranes as sophisticated crystal devices for gas purification techniques.