Characterization of perfluorinated cation-exchange membranes MF-4SC surface modified with halloysite nanotubes

Abstract

The electrical conductivity and diffusion permeability through perfluorinated cation-exchange membranes MF-4SC (Russian analog of the Nafion-type membrane), whose surface is modified by nanotubes of halloysite using short exposures of low temperature microwave plasma, are theoretically investigated using the Nernst-Planck approach. The method of quantitative evaluation of physicochemical parameters (individual and averaged diffusion coefficients and averaged distribution coefficients of ion pairs in the membrane) of the systems ‘electrolyte solution – bi-layer ion-exchange membrane – water/electrolyte solution’, which was proposed by us earlier, is further developed. The aforementioned parameters of modified MF-4SC/halloysite membranes were found using the least squares method. For this purpose we used electrical conductivity as well as diffusion permeability data experimentally obtained for NaCl and HCl solutions of different concentration. A new model of bi-layer membrane system can be used for refining the calculated results by taking into account the difference between co- and counter-ion diffusivities inside the membrane layers. We showed that grafting the layer of halloysite nanotubes onto the membrane surface noticeably affects the exchange capacity as well as the structural and transport characteristics of the original perfluorinated membrane. In particular, such a membrane may show weak asymmetry of diffusion permeability when its position inside a measuring cell is changed. Hybrid MF-4SC/halloysite membranes can thus be productively used in fuel cells and catalysis.