Electrified water treatment processes can sidestep the need for the transport and storage of chemicals and facilitate the transition from centralized treatment to distributed or remote point-of-entry and point-of-use applications. Furthermore, the greater deployment of electrified water purification systems can complement the anticipated increase in renewable energy penetration. Ion-exchange membranes (IEMs) are polymeric thin-films with a high density of charge functional groups that allow the selective passage of oppositely-charged species (counterions) but exclude like-charged ions (co-ions). IEM processes are widely deployed in water, environmental, and energy applications. Despite broad adoption of the technologies, knowledge gaps exist in the fundamental understanding of the transport phenomena in IEMs. In particular, water chemistry of aqueous feed streams treated by IEMs are highly complex, mixed matrices, but past research has mostly focused on single electrolyte solutions, such as NaCl. In this talk, I will present recent work from our group in advancing transport models for ion-exchange membranes, specifically, new insights obtained when the scope of investigation is extended to multi-component systems. Directions for future studies will be proposed and implications for the development of next-generation membranes and novel separation applications will be discussed.

Ion-exchange membranes for electrified separations

ACS Fall 2021

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