Gas separation with graphene nanopores - Scientists in New Zealand, the US and Germany have developed a way of using tiny pores in a graphene sheet to separate different isotopes of helium. By creating nanoscale holes in the material, the researchers calculated that it should be possible to alter the permeability of graphene to allow helium-3 isotopes to tunnel through, while heavier helium-4 isotopes cannot. This approach has potential applications in the production of helium-3 for scientific research as well as for the separation of gases in other scientific and industrial contexts. References: 1 A Hauser, J Schrier and P Schwerdtfeger, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2012, DOI: 10.1021/jp302498d 2 A Hauser and P Schwerdtfeger, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2012, 3, 209 (DOI: 10.1021/jz201504k) 3 D Jiang, V R Cooper and S Dai, Nano. Lett., 2009, 9, 4019 (DOI: 10.1021/nl9021946)