Graphdiyne is a novel two-dimensional material deriving from graphene that
has been recently synthesized and featuring uniformly distributed sub-nanometer
pores. We report accurate calculations showing that graphdiyne pores permit an
almost unimpeded helium transport which can be used for its chemical and
isotopic separation. Exceptionally high He/CH_4 selectivities are found which
largely exceed the performance of the best membranes used to date for
extraction from natural gas. Moreover, by exploiting slight differences in the
tunneling probabilities of ^3He and ^4He, we also find promising results for
the separation of the Fermionic isotope at low temperature
