Performance evaluation of auxetic molecular sieves with re-entrant structures.

This paper explores the comparative advantage of auxetic membranes over non-auxetic ones by geometrical analysis. It is herein demonstrated that, unlike non-auxetic sieves, the auxetic sieve exhibits an almost linear correlation with the applied strain, thereby demonstrating the higher tunability of auxetic sieves. Further investigation on the performance of auxetic sieves by varying the initial inclination angle shows that the sieving sensitivity is inversely proportional to the initial inclination angle. Finally a calculation based on (1,4)-reflexyne as a molecular auxetic sieve reveals that such as filter can block out impurities of sub-nanoscale size, while enabling the transport of biochemicals. The obtained results suggest the use of auxetic molecular sieves as high performance bandage, filters and other devices that require ultra-clean environment with biochemical permeability.