Strontium cations guarding chabazite zeolite windows for selective deuterium recovery
Tian‐Yi Li, Feng‐Cheng Yang, Volodymyr Bon, Wei Liu, Jia‐Rui Gu, Stefan Kaskel, Guang‐Ping HaoAbstract
Deuterium is indispensable for nuclear fusion and isotopic labeling; however, the separation of high‐purity deuterium from hydrogen isotope mixtures (D 2 /H 2 ) remains challenging due to their nearly identical physicochemical properties. Herein, we report a strontium‐cation‐guarded chabazite (CHA) zeolite that exhibits a combined effect of favorable diffusion kinetics and tailored equilibrium adsorption for the quantum sieving of D 2 /H 2 . Strontium cations positioned at 8‐membered ring windows facilitate preferential D 2 diffusion and enrichment during adsorption, while simultaneously enabling rapid H 2 release during desorption. This decoupling of adsorption–desorption dynamics results in exceptional D 2 /H 2 performance. At 40 K, the optimal adsorbent achieves a dynamic D 2 /H 2 selectivity of 3.10 and a D 2 capacity of 6.60 mmol g −1 . Breakthrough tests followed by a two‐stage desorption process (direct purging and subsequent heating) yielded D 2 recoveries of 52.7% and 47.3%, with corresponding purities of 73.3% and 98.9%, respectively.