Impermeable Atomic Membranes from Graphene Sheets

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that monolayer graphene acts as an impermeable, atomically thin barrier to gases like helium, enabling measurement of its elastic properties and creating a novel ultra-thin separation membrane.

Contribution

It introduces the use of graphene as an impermeable atomic membrane and measures its elastic constants and mass through pressure-induced deformation.

Findings

Graphene is impermeable to standard gases including helium.

The pressurized graphene membrane serves as the world's thinnest balloon.

It provides a one-atom-thick separation barrier.

Abstract

We demonstrate that a monolayer graphene membrane is impermeable to standard gases including helium. By applying a pressure difference across the membrane, we measure both the elastic constants and the mass of a single layer of graphene. This pressurized graphene membrane is the world's thinnest balloon and provides a unique separation barrier between 2 distinct regions that is only one atom thick.