Preparation and Performance of Bipolar Membranes with Liquid Ion-Exchange Medium

摘要

The current density is rather low in solid bipolar membranes, because the water transfer rate is relatively slow across solid bipolar membranes made of solid ion-exchange materials. This paper describes the use of polymer solutions, such as phosphatic poly(vinyl alcohol) solution, poly(acrylic acid) solution and poly(vinyl alcohol) solutions with dispersed cation/anion-exchange resin particles to prepare bipolar membranes. The 0.1 mol/L NaOH and the 0.05 mol/L H2SO4 were used to test the performance of the bipolar membranes. For a fixed liquid layer thickness, both the current density and the selectivity increase with the concentration increase of a polyelectrolyte solution. The maximum current density measured in the experiment was 1497 A/m2 with a selectivity of 96.8%.