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Thousands of tons of isotopic mixtures are processed annually for heavy-waterproduction and tritium decontamination. The existing technologies remainextremely energy intensive and require large capital investments. Newapproaches are needed to reduce the industry's footprint. Recently, micron-sizecrystals of graphene were shown to act as efficient sieves for hydrogenisotopes pumped through graphene electrochemically. Here we report afully-scalable approach, using graphene obtained by chemical vapor deposition,which allows a proton-deuteron separation factor of ca. 8, despite cracks andimperfections. The energy consumption is projected to be orders of magnitudesmaller with respect to existing technologies. A membrane based on 30 m2 ofgraphene, a readily accessible amount, could provide a heavy-water outputcomparable to that of modern plants. Even higher efficiency is expected fortritium separation. With no fundamental obstacles for scaling up, thetechnology's simplicity, efficiency and green credentials call forconsideration by the nuclear and related industries.

Scalable and efficient separation of hydrogen isotopes using graphene-based electrochemical pumping