Ion transport in inhomogeneous ion exchange membranes

The effect on current efficiency produced by fluctuations in an ion-exchange membrane's fixed ion concentration (due to ion clustering) is determined by considering transport in several model membranes containing different fixed ion distributions. Electroneutrality is not assumed, so as to include nonlinear effects due to space charge in the clusters. The Nernst—Planck and Poisson equations are solved using perturbation theory, and the case of small fluctuations in fixed charge density is considered in order to obtain analytic solutions to the perturbation equations. Results show that an inhomogeneous distribution of fixed ions gives rise to increased current efficiency when the counterions and co-ions experience in the membrane unequal forces due to the potential produced by the fixed ions. The length scale over which the inhomogeneities occur is important in determining the current efficiency.     

Modification of properties of ion exchange membranes

Summary Interaction between ion exchange membranes and surface active agents was observed by electrodialyzing the salt solution containing the surface active agent. The behavior of the electric resistance of the membrane during the electrodialysis, the current efficiency and the adsorbed or ion-exchanged amount and the permeated amount of the surface active agent were observed. Generally, the electric resistance of the membrane during the electrodialysis increased remarkably when the ionic surface active agent having the opposite charge to ion-exchange groups of the membrane was contained in the solution. And the correlation of the behavior of the electric resistance of the membrane to the electrodialysis condition, species of surface active agents and species of membranes was mainly observed. Results were as follows. 1) The adsorption' or ion-exchange of ionic surface active agent on the membrane was remarkably emphasized by the electric field. 2) The degree of the increase in the electric resistance of the membrane was remarkable when the surface active agent had the high molecular weight and the bulky molecular structure. 3) The degree of the increase in the electric resistance was remarkably various according to species of the membranes.From these results, a protecting method for the change of these membrane properties was examined. When the ion exchange membrane was treated with the polyelectrolyte solution having the opposite charge to ion exchange groups of the membrane, the increase in the electric resistance by ionic surface active agent was depressed. Generally, though the change of electrodialysic properties of the membrane by the ionic surface active agent was remarkable in the membrane having the tight structure, the change of the properties of the membrane having the tight structure was easy to be protected by the polyelectrolyte treatment. Though the ionic surface active agent having the bulky molecular structure made the properties of the membrane change remarkably, the change of the properties of the membrane by the bulky surface active agent could be easily protected by the polyelectrolyte treatment.

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Zusammenfassung Die Wechselwirkung von Ionenaustauschermembranen mit grenzflächenaktiven Stoffen wird durch Elektrodialyse untersucht. Der elektrische Widerstand der Membranen steigt während der Elektrodialyse beträchtlich an, wenn die grenzflächenaktiven Ionen entgegengesetzte Ladungen wie die Austauschergruppen der Membranen haben. Es wurde gefunden, daß 1. die Adsorption oder der Ionenaustausch der grenzflächenaktiven Ionen an der Membran beträchtlich durch das elektrische Feld verstärkt wird; 2. die Zunahme des elektrischen Widerstandes groß ist, wenn das grenzflächenaktive Ion ein hohes Molekulargewicht hat und möglichst sperrig ist; 3. die Widerstandsänderung merklich von der Art der Membran beeinflußt wird. Auf Grund dieser Versuche wurde die Möglichkeit geprüft, die Zunahme des Membranwiderstandes bei Gegenwart grenzflächenaktiver Stoffe durch Adsorption von Polyelektrolyten zu reduzieren.

     

Treatment of ion exchange membranes to decrease divalent ion permeability

In the electrodialysis process for concentrating sea water, the addition of a small amount of the polycationic reagent Nonisold into the sea water feed results in a reduction of divalent cation permeability relative to that of monovalent cations. This is due to the formation of a reagent layer on the surface of the cation-exchange membrane. Divalent cations require greater energy to pass over the potential barrier at the reagent layer than do monovalent cations. The relationship between the height of the potential barrier and the ratio of ionic fluxes or the permselectivity coefficient is deduced on the basis of a kinetic-controlled mechanism of uptake of ions from the solution, and the height of the potential barrier is estimated from the experimental results. The difference between the potential barrier for divalent cations and that for monovalent cations may reach up to about 10 kJ/mol.     

Mathematical modeling of solution deionization by sorption on aerogel electrodes

The mathematical modeling is used to study the dynamics of solution deionization by sorption on aerogel electrodes. The matter transport by solution flow, diffusion, and sorption in pores are simulated. Several models are proposed to describe the phenomenon with different degree of approximation. Problems arising in numerical computing and ways to solve them are described. It is shown that at low solution concentrations and a small pore size the effect of electro-sorption is not reduced to the formation of a double electric layer on the pore surface, which uptakes ions from the solution. In addition to the formation of this layer distributed ionic charge is accumulated all over the pore space. The dependence of the effective diffusion coefficient inside the porous electrode on the ion concentration is found. Examples of calculating the deionization process at one-cycle and multi-cycle sorption are given.     

Synthesis and characterisation of sulfonic acid-containing ion exchange membranes based on hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon polymers

Radiation-induced graft copolymerisation has been used to modify polymers with styrene to prepare pre-cursor copolymers that can be subsequently functionalised to produce ion exchange membranes. This paper describes the processes of simultaneous and pre-irradiation graft copolymerisation of styrene to modify hydrocarbon and fluorine-containing polymers and their sulfonation to produce hydrophilic membranes. The effect of varying the grafting conditions and their characterisation by ion exchange capacity, electrolytic resistivity and equilibrium water content is reported.     

Asymmetric ion exchange mosaic membranes with unique selectivity

In this paper, we describe the investigation of membranes to concentrate aqueous low molecular weight (<500 Da) organics streams, while removing electrolytes including divalent salts such as sodium sulfate. Such membranes would be useful in many industrial applications as currently used pressure driven process such as nanofiltration (NF) or electrical processes such as electric dialysis (ED) cannot achieve such separations and concentrations. An analysis of ion/water transport in different membranes and, selectivity and flux requirements indicated that ion exchange mosaics in the form of integrally skinned asymmetric structures could achieve the required performance. The relationship between the internal structure of the mosaic membrane elements and the required separation properties was further analyzed as a development guide. It was found that such membranes could be made by casting a homogenous solution of two mutually incompatible polymers in a common solvent, containing non-solvents and additives, followed by a chemical modification. The process of forming such membranes involves phase separation between the two polymers and the phase inversion of each polymer. In this study the membrane consists of a cation exchange asymmetric membrane with a uniform distribution of anion exchange particles in the dense integrally skin layer. The choice of polymeric materials, their molecular weights, solvent combinations and surfactants determined the membranes’ surface morphology, mosaic dimensions and particle density. In this way membranes were formed with ∼1 μm sized anion exchange particles uniformly dispersed in a thin (∼1.0 μm) cation exchange selective layer of an asymmetric membrane. The best performance to date: Fluxes of 500+LMD, 10% rejection to sodium sulfate, 90% to sucrose and >98% rejection to 400 molecular weight organic ions. The membranes also show a mosaic effect of decreasing sulfate rejection with decreasing sulfate concentration. The membranes also show a musaic effect of decreasing sulfate rejection with decreasing sulfate concentration, which is desired to perform effectively the removal of mono and bivalent ions during diafiltration.     

Long-term stable electroosmotic pump with ion exchange membranes

We present the design, fabrication and test of a novel inline frit-based electroosmotic (EO) pump with ion exchange membranes. The pump is more stable than previous types due to a new flow component that ensures a controlled width of the diffusion layer close to the ion exchange membranes. The pump casing is constructed in polymers while the EO active part, the frit, is made in a nanoporous silica. The pressure capability of the pump is Deltapm/DeltaV = 0.15 bar V(-1). The flow rate to current ratio is Qm/I = 6 microL min(-1) mA(-1). This translates to Deltapm = 4.5 bar and Qm = 6 microL min(-1) at DeltaV = 30 V. The pump has been tested with four different buffer concentrations. In order to investigate day-to-day reproducibility each Q-p pump characteristic has been recorded several times during hour-long operation runs under realistic operating conditions.     

Tagged hypervalent iodine reagents: a new purification concept based on ion exchange through SN2 substitution

The preparation of phenylsulfonate-tagged iodine(III) reagents as well as their use in a novel purification strategy for iodine(III)-promoted reactions is described. The concept is based on ion exchange and is initiated by an azide-promoted SN2-reaction at the alkyl sulfonate followed by trapping of the resulting aryl sulfonate anion with an ion-exchange resin. The concept is successfully proven for Ru-catalyzed oxidations of alcohols, the activation and glycosidation of thioglycosides, and the SuArez reaction of pyranoses.     

Binding Aedes aegypti densonucleosis virus to ion exchange membranes

Experimental and numerical results for binding Aedes aegypti densonucleosis virus (AeDNV) using anion and cation exchange membranes are presented. AeDNV particles are adsorbed by anion and cation exchange membranes providing the virus particles and membranes are oppositely charged. Q membranes which are strongly basic anion exchangers were the most effective. Dynamic and static capacities for Q membranes were found to be similar. A numerical model is proposed which assumes a log normal pore size distribution. By estimating the required parameters from static binding experiments, the model may be used to calculate the breakthrough curve for virus adsorption.     

Controlled porosity monolithic material as permselective ion exchange membranes

Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are used in a variety of analytical devices, including suppressors, eluent generators and other components used in ion chromatography. Such membranes are flexible and undergo substantial dimensional changes on hydration. Presently the push to miniaturization continues; a resurgent interest in open tubular ion chromatography requires microscale adaptation of these components. Incorporating IEMs in microscale devices is difficult. Although both macroporous and microporous ion exchange materials have been made for use as chromatographic packing, ion exchange material used as membranes are porous only on a molecular scale. Because such pores have vicinal ion exchange sites, ions of the same charge sign as those of the fixed sites are excluded from the IEMs. Monolithic polymers, including ion exchangers derived therefrom, are presently extensively used. When used in a separation column, such a monolithic structure contains an extensively connected porous network. We show here that by controlling the amount of porogen added during the synthesis of monolithic polymers derived from ethylene dimethacrylate – glycidyl methacrylate, which are converted to an anion exchanger by treatment with trimethylamine, it is possible to obtain rigid ion exchange polymers that behave like IEMs and allow only one charge type of ions to pass through, i.e., are permselective. We demonstrate successful open tubular cation chromatography suppressor performance.     

Modification of properties of ion exchange membranes V. Structure of cationic polyelectrolyte on the surface of cation exchange membranes

Summary Electrodialytic transport properties of cation exchange membrane are changed by adhesion of polyethylene imine on the membrane surface. The effect of conformation of polyethylene imine molecules on the transport properties of the membrane, thickness of adherent layer and mechanism of adhesion were discussed. Observed were relative transport numbers of calcium ions to sodium ions,P _Na ^Ca , current efficiency, electric resistance of the membrane during electrodialysis and pH-shift of anolyte after electrodialysis. P _Na ^Ca decreased remarkably, when the conformation of polyethylene imine was compact by adding salt to the solution, adjusting pH of the solution to a high value where polyethylene imine was scarcely protonated and adding water-soluble neutral polymers and multivalent anions. It was confirmed that the conformation of polyethylene imine on the membrane surface controlled the degree of the change of the transport properties of the membrane. The adherent amount of polyethylene imine on the cation exchange membrane was calculated assuming that a monolayer of polyethylene imine molecules with hydrodynamic radii was formed. This differed markedly from the amount observed. The reason for the difference was discussed. There was no observation of salting out by sodium chloride and calcium chloride. It was concluded that the polyethylene imine molecules on the cation exchange membrane are mainly bound by ion-exchange.

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Zusammenfassung Die elektrodialytischen Transporteigenschaften von Kationenaustauschmembranen werden mit Polyäthylenimin (PEI) als kationischer Polyelektrolyt verändert. Sie werden durch die Konformation des PEI in der Lösung beeinflußt.Als Transporteigenschaften werden die relativen Transportzahlen der Ca-Ionen im Vergleich zu Na-Ionen, der elektrische Widerstand der Membran während der Elektrodialyse and die pH-Änderung nach der Elektrodialyse im Anodenraum untersucht.

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With 13 figures and 3 tables     

Selective electrodes for silver based on polymeric membranes containing cali

Silver ion-selective electrodes were prepared with polymeric membranes based on two calix[4]arene derivatives functionalized by two hydroxy and two benzothiazolylthioethoxy groups. The electrodes all gave a good Nernstian response of 58mV decade(-1) for silver in the activity range 5 x 10(-6)-10(-1) M, the limits of detection reached 10(-5.8) M and exhibited high selectivity towards alkali, alkaline earth and some transition metal ions. The electrode was used as indicator electrode in titrations of Ag+ with Cl- ion.     

Solid-state reference electrodes based on carbon nanotubes and polyacrylate membranes

A novel potentiometric solid-state reference electrode containing single-walled carbon nanotubes as the transducer layer between a polyacrylate membrane and the conductor is reported here. Single-walled carbon nanotubes act as an efficient transducer of the constant potentiometric signal originating from the reference membrane containing the Ag/AgCl/Cl⁻ ions system, and they are needed to obtain a stable reference potentiometric signal. Furthermore, we have taken advantage of the light insensitivity of single-walled carbon nanotubes to improve the analytical performance characteristics of previously reported solid-state reference electrodes. Four different polyacrylate polymers have been selected in order to identify the most efficient reservoir for the Ag/AgCl system. Finally, two different arrangements have been assessed: (1) a solid-state reference electrode using photo-polymerised n-butyl acrylate polymer and (2) a thermo-polymerised methyl methacrylate:n-butyl acrylate (1:10) polymer. The sensitivity to various salts, pH and light, as well as time of response and stability, has been tested: the best results were obtained using single-walled carbon nanotubes and photo-polymerised n-butyl acrylate polymer. Water transport plays an important role in the potentiometric performance of acrylate membranes, so a new screening test method has been developed to qualitatively assess the difference in water percolation between the polyacrylic membranes studied. The results presented here open the way for the true miniaturisation of potentiometric systems using the excellent properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes.     

Synthesis of ion exchange membranes from ozonized high density polyethylene

The synthesis and the characterization of graft copolymers prepared from ozonized high density polyethylene (HDPE) are described. The powder of HDPE was treated with ozone in well defined conditions and then copolymerized with monomers, such as, acrylic acid (AA), N,N-dimethylamino-2 ethylmethacrylate (MADAME) and vinyl phosphonic acid (VPA). Cationic exchange membranes were prepared from the grafted copolymers of AA and VPA and anionic exchange membrane from the grafted copolymer of MADAME. The obtained copolymers were characterized by the grafting rate, FTIR spectroscopy, scaning electronic microscopy, thickness, exchange capacity and electrical resistance.     

Ion transport and water dissociation in bipolar ion exchange membranes

This paper treats ion transport and water dissociation in “bipolar membranes”, consisting of juxtaposed cation and anion exchangers. Bipolar membranes are the close ion analogues of the semiconductor p—n junction and show similar, but not identical, current rectification behavior. The major difference between these two systems is that bipolar membranes contain a total of four mobile species. We attempt a simplified treatment which includes the flux of all four ions and find that, though the current is on the average carried by only two ions, which two they are depends on the voltage range in question. The flux of minority carriers, though relatively unimportant at small applied voltages, becomes crucial at high voltages, and at very high voltages the process of water splitting dominates. When the fluxes of all four ions are taken into consideration it is possible to predict qualitatively the experimentally observed current—voltage curves over the entire voltage range. We discuss the importance of symmetry and the restrictions of studying an idealized system. Suggestions for further work are included.     

Critique of the mechanism of superselectivity in ion exchange membranes

One possible origin of permselectivity in situations where the Donnan equilibrium cannot exert much influence is investigated. The suggested origin of enhanced current efficiency beyond the Donnan limit is the existence of a coarse grained inhomogeneity in the distribution of “fixed” ions in the ion exchange membrane. Approximate solutions of the Nernst—Planck and Poisson equation for such inhomogeneous membranes are obtained for relevant highly idealized schematic situations in which only this single effect is investigated. Only “trends” are indicated, and the results do imply that “superselectivity” might be due to such inhomogeneity (possibly resulting from dipole clustering of fixed ionic groups), and that further, more precise, work should be carried out.     

Transport limitations in ion exchange membranes at low salt concentrations

In this work we show that the electrical resistance of ion exchange membranes strongly depends on the solution concentration: especially at low solution concentrations (<0.1 M NaCl) we observe a very strong increase in electrical resistance of the membrane with decreasing concentration. To understand and clarify this behavior we systematically investigate the influence of the solution concentration on ion transport phenomena in two anion exchange membranes (Neosepta AMX and Fumasep FAD) and two cation exchange membranes (Neosepta CMX and Fumasep FKD) in the concentration range from 0.017 M to 0.5 M NaCl and for different hydrodynamic conditions. The results are highly valuable for processes that operate in the low concentration range (<0.5 M) such as reverse electrodialysis, electrodialysis, microbial fuel cells and capacitive deionization, where the standard membrane characterization values as usually determined in 0.5 M NaCl solutions do not represent the practical application.     

Effect of metal ion exchange on the photocurrent response from bacteriorhodopsin on tin oxide electrodes

The transient photocurrent response from bacteriorhodopsin (bR) on tin oxide electrodes was strongly influenced by metal ions bound to bR molecules. The photocurrent polarity reversal pH, which corresponded to the pH value for the reversal of the proton release/uptake sequence in the bR photocycle, of cation-substituted purple membrane (PM) was shifted to lower pH with the increase in the cation affinities to carboxyl groups and a close correlation was noted between the two values. This suggests that the metal ion present in the extracellular region of a bR molecule modulates the pK(a) of proton release groups of bR by stabilizing the ionized state of the proton-releasing glutamic acids. The behavior of photocurrents at light-off in alkaline media, reflecting the proton uptake by bR, was unchanged by binding monovalent (Na(+) and K(+)) or divalent cations (Mg(2+) and Ca(2+)), but was drastically changed by binding La(3+) ions. This can be explained by invoking a substantial slowing of the proton uptake process in the presence of La(3+).     

Potentiometric ion- and bio-selective electrodes based on asymmetric cellulose acetate membranes

The potentiometric response properties of ammonium-, carbonate-, and proton-selective electrodes prepared by incorporating appropriate neutral carriers within novel asymmetric cellulose acetate membranes are reported. The membranes are formed by first casting a thin layer of cellulose triacetate without carrier, hydrolyzing one side of this film with base, and then on the other side casting a second layer of cellulose triacetate containing the membrane active components. The resulting asymmetric ion-selective membranes function equivalently, in terms of selectivity and response slopes, to non-asymmetric cellulose triacetate membranes and conventional poly(vinyl chloride)-based membranes. The hydrolyzed surface of the asymmetric membranes can be activated in aqueous solution with carbonyldiimidazole for the direct immobilization of proteins on the surface of the membranes, without loss in potentiometric ion-response. As an example, the immobilization of urease on the surfaces of ammonium- and carbonate-selective membranes yields potentiometric bio-selective urea-probes with desirable dynamic response properties.     

Electrochemical behavior of membranes of ion-selective electrodes based on complex oxides

Lead-selective film electrodes with solid contact with membranes on the basis of niobates and vanadates of compositions Sr_2.75Pb_0.25La(VO₄)₃, Ba_3.8Pb_0.2Nb₂O₉, Ba_3.5Pb_0.5Nb₂O₉, Pb₃NiNb₂O₉, and Pb₂Nb₂O₇ are constructed and studied. Basic electrochemical characteristics of ion-selective electrodes, such as linearity region and steepness of the electrode function, working pH interval, type of electrode function, and reproducibility are determined. The electrode with a membrane on the basis of Pb₃NiNb₂O₉ is tested and recommended as an indicator in the method of potentiostatic titration. The optimum titrant for assaying ions of lead(II) in solution is potassium chromate.