Synthesis of a monovalent selective cation exchange membrane to concentrate reverse osmosis brines by electrodialysis

In this work, novel monovalent selective cation exchange membranes (CEMs) with different mixtures of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and sulfonated PVDF (S-PVDF) were synthesized. The selected composite membranes were modified by surface polymerization of polyaniline (PANi) to improve their monovalen...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Reig i Amat, Mònica|||0000-0003-0225-2466, Farrokhzad, Hasan, Van der Bruggen, Bart, Gibert Agulló, Oriol|||0000-0002-7313-5147, Cortina Pallás, José Luis|||0000-0002-3719-5118
Format: article
Publication Date:2015
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repository:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/82544
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/82544
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2015.07.023
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Electrodialysis
Saline water conversion--Reverse osmosis process.
Monovalent cation selectivity
Membrane synthesis
Surface modification
Reverse osmosis brines
composite membranes
chloralkali industry
surface modification
transport-properties
polyaniline
ion
polymerization
separation
films
Osmosi inversa
Membranes (Tecnologia)
Electrodiàlisi
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química
Description
Summary:In this work, novel monovalent selective cation exchange membranes (CEMs) with different mixtures of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and sulfonated PVDF (S-PVDF) were synthesized. The selected composite membranes were modified by surface polymerization of polyaniline (PANi) to improve their monovalent cation selectivity. PANi was doped with p-toluene sulfonic acid (pTSA) or L-valine (2-amino-3-methylbutanoic acid) and the selectivity of each CEM was determined. Membrane properties, such as chemical composition, water uptake, ion exchange capacity, permselectivity, contact angle and crystallinity were measured. The influence of the applied voltage was also studied. The newly developed membranes were used for electrodialytic concentration of NaCl from synthetic reverse osmosis (RO) brine. Doped membranes with pTSA (S-Na(Mg) = 0.13, S-Na(Ca) = 3.59) and valine (S-Na(Mg) = 0.09, S-Na(Ca) = 0.8) have a higher selectivity for sodium than the composite ones (S-Na(Mg) = 0.63, S-Na(Ca) = 6.82). Moreover, the increase of applied voltage results in an increase of the selectivity for monovalent ions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.