The structural deformation of porous graphene under tensile stress and the diffusion properties of H2, O2 and CO2 through porous graphene under various strain conditions were investigated using the first-principles density functional theory. It was found that the application of a tensile stress could effectively increase the diffusion rate of H2, O2, and CO2 in porous graphene by up to 7, 13 and 20 orders of magnitude, respectively. Therefore, it was proposed that applying tensile stress was an effective way to control the diffusion rate of gases through porous graphene. By applying sufficiently large tensile stress, it was thought possible to use porous graphene for filtering larger gas molecules such as O2 in addition to previously proposed H2. The results open up an opportunity to utilize porous graphene as a controllable gas separation membrane, leading to wide range of energy and environmental applications.

Theoretical Study of Strained Porous Graphene Structures and Their Gas Separation Properties. Jungthawan, S., Reunchan, P., Limpijumnong, S.: Carbon, 2013, 54, 359-64