A new lateral method for characterizing the electrical conductivity of ion-exchange membranes

Youcef Sedkaoui (1, 2) , Anthony Szymczyk (1) , Hakim Lounici (2) , Omar Arous (3)

1 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes
2 BIOGEP - Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology and Process Engineering
3 USTHB - Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene = University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene [Alger]

A new method for determining the electrical conductivity of ion-exchange membranes was implemented with four commercial membranes (AMX, CMX, MK-40 and MA-41). It is based on lateral resistance measurements without direct contact between electrodes and membranes. The cell configuration made it possible to determine the membrane conductivity over a wide range of electrolyte concentrations (measurements were carried out in the range 10-5-5x10-1 M). The structural parameters of the different membranes were inferred from AC conductivities and the microheterogeneous model. They were found in good agreement with literature results obtained by normal measurements (i.e. with current lines oriented normally to the membrane surface), thus confirming the reliability of the proposed method. The main advantage of our method is the possibility to characterize ion-exchange membranes even at low salt concentration unlike usual non-contact methods based on normal measurements.

Keywords: Ion-exchange membranes; Electrical conductivity; Lateral measurements; Microheterogeneous model; Electrokinetics

Domains: Chemical Sciences

Youcef Sedkaoui, Anthony Szymczyk, Hakim Lounici, Omar Arous. A new lateral method for characterizing the electrical conductivity of ion-exchange membranes. Journal of Membrane Science, 2016, 507, pp.34-42. ⟨10.1016/j.memsci.2016.02.003⟩. ⟨hal-01272675⟩