Ion Exchange Membrane for Reverse Electrodialysis
JUNIPER PUBLISHERS- ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE Abstract Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are used for exchanging or removing ions from the solutions so that they are fabricated by polymers rather than metals or ceramics. When metal is in contact with the solutions, some reaction or corrosion occurs, and ceramic is difficult to use in membrane form because it is brittle. Also, normal metals and ceramics do not have high ion-exchange properties so that polymers are used widely as a host material of the IEM. The conventional IEMs are either layered membrane consisted of ion exchange material and support layer, and thick bulk membrane. There are no critical problems to use them for water treatment, but they are not suitable for electrochemical application such as reverse electrodialysis (RED). RED is a method of making electricity by sequential ion transport through semi-permeable membranes and electrochemical reaction at the electrode part so that the IEMs ...