Ion transport in polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes: Electrochemical, spectroscopic, and computational analysis.

摘要

Diffusion of ions across thin membranes, whether polymeric or biological, is diverse and important field in science. In separation science, thin polymer films have potential application in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In this dissertation, ion transport on a recently discovered polymer thin films known as polyelectrolyte multilayer films is investigated. Unexpectedly, a polyelectrolyte multilayer membrane behaved unlike classical membranes and a new mechanism termed the “reluctant exchange” was proposed to explain their behavior. Ion transport in these membranes was studied electrochemically, using the rotating disc electrode voltammetry technique, to obtain flux characteristic of at least ten electroactive species The flux through membranes was found to be either a linear or nonlinear function of electrolyte concentration depending on the charge, the resonance form, and the membrane diffusion coefficient of the electroactive ion. The “reluctant exchange” lead to significant transport selectivity between ions, favoring species with lower charge. A triangular relation was established between the electroactive probe ions, the polyelectrolyte ion pair exchangers, and a variety of supporting electrolytes. In certain cases a blocking effect was detected, which was harnessed to study the effectiveness of these films at inhibiting pitting corrosion of stainless steel. Experimental analysis was extended to include in situ Attenuated Total Internal Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infra Red spectroscopy that verified the linear dependence of the population of extrinsic sites and the independence of the concentration of the probe ions on the concentration of the external salt solution. Finally, owing to the difficulty of detecting the hops of active probe ions across the ion pair exchangers, a theoretical approach was proposed to understand the molecular dynamics of the “reluctant exchange” mechanism. A visualization of ion transport across the polyelectrolyte multilayer film was simulated using Monte Carlo Algorithm, backed up by probability formulations that were derived from first principles. The simulated results verified the validity of the proposed flux equation, proved the capability of the “reluctant exchange” mechanism to transport ions across the multilayer, accounted for the resonance phenomenon, and determined the population distribution of ions at non-steady state and steady state conditions.