Isolating deuterium isotopes via quantum filtering

Heavy hydrogen isotopes such as deuterium have critical applications in modern technology like optimizing nuclear reactions or calibrating magnetic resonances (MR) instruments. Given its shared chemical properties to protium, the isotope can only be separated via high-energy techniques. The motivation of this research is to employ a separation system that is more energy-effective than current methods. We propose the use of a graphene monolayer to sieve the hydrogen isotopes. We study the dynamic behaviors such as equilibrium positions, migration trajectories, and quantum tunneling of the particles on the graphene surface. This is done by analyzing the interaction potential energy of the hydrogen and deuterium atom located above the surface. The classical trajectories and equilibrium positions are determined numerically by solving Newton’s laws. From this, we calculate the quantum transmission coefficient and atomic flow rates using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximation.