Compression‐Modulated Tunable‐Pore Carbon‐Nanotube Membrane Filters

Turn on the pressure: Vertically aligned carbon-nanotube membranes show super-compressive and elastic properties. The pore size can be dynamically and reversibly controlled by mechanical deformation of the membrane, over ranges useful for ultrafiltration (see picture). The separation of proteins with molecular weights of 14–540 kDa (about 5–20 nm in size) is demonstrated with a single membrane set at different pore sizes by mechanical stress.