Sustainable production of clean water, energy, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals is largely impacted by the efficiency of separation processes in product supply chains. Approximately 10% of the world’s energy is consumed in these separation processes, most of which, because of capital investment issues, are based on decades-old technology. Advanced membrane and adsorbent separators—based on molecular-scale resolution between small molecules—are at least 10 times more efficient than existing separators, opening the possibility of offsetting major global energy usage via advanced separations alone. My research group seeks to create robust membrane and adsorbent platforms that are capable of efficiently separating a wide variety of small molecules.