Concept maps (CMs) visually represent hierarchical connections among related ideas. They foster logical organization and clarify idea relationships, potentially aiding medical students in critical thinking (to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe). However, there are inconsistent claims about the use of CMs in undergraduate medical education. Our three research questions are 1) What studies have been published on concept mapping in undergraduate medical education; 2) What was the impact of CMs on students’ critical thinking; 3) How and why have these interventions had an educational impact? Eight databases were systematically searched (plus a manual and an additional search were conducted). After eliminating duplicate entries, titles and abstracts and full-texts were independently screened by two authors. Data extraction and quality assessment of the studies were independently performed by two authors. Qualitative and quantitative data were integrated using mixed-methods. The results were reported using the STructured apprOach to the Reporting In healthcare education of Evidence Synthesis statement and BEME guidance. Thirty-nine studies were included from 26 journals (19 quantitative, 8 qualitative and 12 mixed-methods studies). CMs were considered as a tool to promote critical thinking, both in the perception of students and tutors, as well as in assessing students’ knowledge and/or skills. In addition to their role as facilitators of knowledge integration and critical thinking, CMs were considered both a teaching and a learning methods. CMs are teaching and learning tools which seem to help medical students develop critical thinking. This is due to the flexibility of the tool as a facilitator of knowledge integration, as a learning and teaching method. The wide range of contexts, purposes, and variations in how CMs and instruments to assess critical thinking are used increases our confidence that the positive effects are consistent.

High-performance carbon molecular sieves (CMSs) for the separation of propylene (C3H6) and propane (C3H8) were synthesized in this study by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of benzene on the pore entrances of activated carbon. The C3H6 and C3H8 separation characteristics of the CMSs were controlled by altering the amount of carbon deposited during CVD, and the resulting characteristic curve featuring the kinetic selectivity of C3H6 over C3H8 as a function of the adsorption rate constant of C3H6 is considered to be the upper bound of the C3H6–C3H8 separation factor for current CMSs because of the presence of previously reported CMS data under this curve. Additionally, CMS models were constructed using grand canonical molecular dynamics (GCMD) simulations mimicking the process of CVD, which revealed that the kinetic selectivity of C3H6 over C3H8 strongly depended on the size of the pore entrances at the level of 0.01 nm, and that strict control of the pore-entrance size was crucial for obtaining high-performance CMSs for C3H6–C3H8 separation. This was essentially achieved by controlling the duration of CVD, which led to the experimental realization of CMSs with a C3H6 selectivity over C3H8 of >2000 and a high uptake rate of C3H6. A design guideline for the development of high-performance CMSs for C3H6–C3H8 separation was proposed based on theoretical calculations performed using idealized carbon structures, which extracted the characteristics of the CMS models obtained from the GCMD simulations.