Isotopic separation is of paramount importance for producing high-purity heavy hydrogen, yet the process remains hugely challenging. Here, we report on an Fe/ZSM-5 zeolite that was able to efficiently separate deuterium from protium via chemical quantum sieving. Structural data showed that four types of Fe species were present in Fe/ZSM-5 and oligomeric Fe–O clusters in the zeolite pores were correlated directly with gas selectivity. Gas adsorption revealed that Fe–O species served as the main adsorption sites and interacted with D₂ more strongly than with H₂. D₂/H₂ separation was exemplified using thermal desorption spectroscopy. D₂/H₂ selectivity increased with Fe loading in Fe/ZSM-5 and a selectivity of 32.1 was obtained with an optimal loading of 7 wt%. The shift of desorption temperature supports the chemical affinity-based quantum sieving of D₂ over H₂. This study demonstrates an effective strategy for enhancing D₂/H₂ separation and the high selectivity means that Fe/ZSM-5 has strong potential in hydrogen isotope separation.

同位素分离对于生产高纯度重氢至关重要，但该过程仍然充满挑战。在这里，我们报道了一种 Fe/ZSM-5 沸石，它能够通过化学量子筛分有效地将氘与氕分离。结构数据表明，Fe/ZSM-5 中存在四种类型的 Fe，沸石孔隙中的低聚 Fe-O 团簇与气体选择性直接相关。气体吸附表明，Fe-O 物质是主要吸附位点，与 D _{2 的相互作用比与 H 2}的相互作用更强。使用热解吸光谱法举例说明了D ₂ /H _2分离。D ₂ /H ₂选择性随着Fe/ZSM-5中Fe负载量的增加而增加，并且在7wt％的最佳负载量下获得32.1的选择性。解吸温度的变化支持D ₂对H ₂的基于化学亲和力的量子筛分。_{这项研究展示了一种增强D 2} /H ₂分离的有效策略，高选择性意味着Fe/ZSM-5在氢同位素分离方面具有强大的潜力。